


Conflict of Interest

by fayrose



Series: Conflict of Interest Universe [1]
Category: Merlin (TV), Silent Witness (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-24
Updated: 2012-07-24
Packaged: 2017-11-10 15:24:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 24
Words: 68,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/467793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fayrose/pseuds/fayrose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Uther Pendragon is found dead, Morgana - his stepdaughter - is at the top of the authorities' list of suspects, despite her insistence that she has been set up. But there is one person who believes her, even when the evidence against Morgana seems conclusive - Dr Nikki Alexander.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first work in the Conflict of Interest universe - a Merlin/Silent Witness crossover universe. I first started writing for this universe of my creation back in 2010.

It was the first day of autumn – or at least the first day that the leaves had begun to fall from the trees – and it had started off as a wholly unremarkable day.

The screeching of the alarm was a harsh reminder that yet another Monday morning had come far too early. She scrunched her eyes more tightly shut and buried her head in the pillow beside her, flailing one arm behind her to shut the thing up. Instead, as usual, the alarm blared on as she knocked one thing after another off the bedside; starting with her glass-half-empty of water and culminating with the tumbling off of her glasses, which had most definitely moved during the night.

“Fuck,” she murmured, turning over and squinting at the floor. At least nothing had broken.

Glasses back in place, she flicked the off switch on the alarm and made her way to the en suite.

Twenty minutes later she dashed into the kitchen. Switched on the coffee machine. Jammed too thickly sliced bread into the toaster, before running back up the stairs to get dressed and find her contact lenses, which had also apparently moved during the night. She was seriously beginning to wonder if her house was possessed by a tragically murdered optician.

As always, by the time she had returned to the kitchen, the toast was mere seconds from catching fire and the coffee was strong enough to wake the dead; all the better to hide the taste of the carbonated toast.

The morning quickly moved on to the daily fight for personal space on the tube and the inevitable late arrival at Pendragon BioTech. From there, a lab coat was donned, wavy black hair was tied back and hands were washed in alcohol soap before being snapped into gloves for the day. This was the exciting and thrilling morning routine of Morgana Lafferty.

She punched the pass-code into keypad and walked into her favourite room in the wintertime-world, the much underrated warm room.

“Good morning, my beauties,” she whispered, peering through the glass window of the batch culture vat at the cloudy liquid inside, smiling faintly. “And to you too,” she whispered to the stacks of agar plates, some with sprouting blue-green colonies, “I can’t forget you, even if I wanted to.” She had spilt the molten agar all over her hand and workbench just before 4 o’clock the Friday before, and still had to clean it up.

Surely there were cleaners whose job it was to do that? Or one of the low level lab techs? Apparently not, no one wanted to do a favour for the boss’s stepdaughter, even if it was pretty common knowledge that they weren’t exactly each other’s favourite people.

By lunch time, she had cleaned her bench – using the laminated ‘Clean Hands Save Lives’ from above the sink – and used up half the world’s supply of pipette tips, whilst simultaneously managing to piss off at least three separate lab technicians in her quest for the complete avoidance of cross-contamination. She was only weeks away from successful purification of a functional version of her life’s work, the MDP9CW2 protein. She called it ‘Excalibur’ affectionately, though never in public or print, she wasn’t one of those drosophila freaks; she was a proper scientist, even if Excalibur sounded much, much cooler.

It was during her lunch break – a time she usually spent with a Marks & Spencer sandwich, the daily Guardian and her iPod – that her day went from ordinary to extra-ordinary. In fact, it was to be one of those life-changing days that never seemed quite so life changing at the time.

“Miss Lafferty?”

She looked up from her paper.

Two police officers stood in the staff-kitchen doorway.

She nodded, her bow pinched in concern. “That’s me.”

“We’re very sorry...”

The world went mute.

All she could hear was her own heavy breathing as her head spun with thoughts of her little half-brother and her sister-in-law. She didn’t know what she would do if anything had happened to them; they were the only family she had. Well apart from-

Sounds blazed back into existence, infinitely louder than before.

“It’s your step-father, he... he was found this morning, in his house.”

Relief flooded though her veins, then stomach churning guilt. They had never gotten on but... She wouldn’t wish this on anyone. Well, maybe certain members of the current government but that was for completely different reasons that mostly had to do with a good deal of activism during her university years and her resulting politics. She knew that the relief was more to do with Arthur – her brother – and Gwen – his wife and her best friend – but that didn’t do anything to dampen the guilt.

“What – What happened?” she asked, swallowing back something unpleasant in her throat and raising her shoulder as a shiver went up her spine.

“It appears that there was foul play, though we can’t be certain until after the... until after the report from the pathologist.”

He sounded sincere enough but she wanted to tell him that she was no stranger to autopsies. That she had seen her fair share of human dissections in her stint as an anatomy student, before her switch to Biomedical Science; but it wasn’t the time and the police officer wasn’t interested in her indecisive youth. But then she thought of  _him_  having an autopsy, even after all he had done, and her stomach churned again.

“Again, we’re very sorry.” They couldn’t make eye contact.

She brushed a nonexistent strand of hair behind her ear, twice. In her mind’s eye she saw Arthur crying, broken. He loved his father. “What about Arthur? Is he-”

“There are officers with him now.” He looked uneasy. “It’s just a formality, but we need someone to identify the body.”

Now she knew why they couldn’t look at her.

Morgana nodded, thoughts she couldn’t keep track of swimming in her head. She stood up and tried to ignore the head rush. “I’ll get my coat.”

As she followed the police officers down the hall and into reception, she saw her colleagues, faces pressed up against the glass of their laboratories, watching her and wondering what it was that she had done this time. Her record wasn’t exactly spotless; she had a few cautions for disturbing the peace from when she was a student and a couple of more recent arrests for protests that had gotten a little out of hand. Not down to her, really, but there was something about her that the authorities found irritating. It was probably the same thing that her stepfather found less than appealing.

_Had found,_  she corrected.

The car ride was awkward. It was silent, music was inappropriate but it wasn’t exactly the time for small talk either. The roads were pretty empty so the journey was a relatively short one. It still managed to feel like a lifetime, as clichéd as it was.

Once in the building, she was lead to a cold room. Cold, she knew, to keep decomposition to a minimum. The thought made her feel a little sick again.

There was a woman in white standing at the head of the covered body, hand poised to reveal the face.

She nodded that she was ready.

The sheet lifted. Seconds passed.

“It’s him.” Her voice was emotionless, she surprised herself.

“We need a little more than that unfortunately,” the woman said, her voice soft and soothing, sounding genuinely apologetic.

“It’s my step-father, Uther Pendragon.” Her eyes met briefly with the pathologists. It occurred to her that it was unusual for a blonde to have such warm, dark eyes. She swallowed. “How did he die?”

“I haven’t started my examination yet,” the woman explained, tilting her head to the side.

“But... I mean, you’d know if...” She sighed, she couldn’t say it.

“There are no external signs of trauma.” The woman’s eyes flicked to the less than happy detective, and then back to Morgana.

“Thank you,” Morgana said and turned to leave.

Arthur was in the atrium. His swollen red eyes met hers, pleading with her to tell him that is hadn’t been him. She wished more than anything that she could.

She held his gaze, telling him with silence what she couldn’t with words. Taking a shuddering breath in, she ran to him, wrapping her arms around his neck and holding him tightly as they both lost the fight to hold back tears. She felt his arms tighten around her, almost pulling her off her feet.

She saw Gwen, blurred, hugging her arms around her waist. When Arthur let her go, she hugged Gwen briefly.

“I’m so sorry, Morgana,” she whispered.

“Me too.”

Gwen smiled at her sadly, squeezing her arm. “The car’s outside. You’ll stay tonight?”

Morgana nodded and took Arthur’s arm. He was so strong, but he had just been made an orphan, and that was the worst feeling in the world, even at 23. She knew: that’s how old she had been.

 

 

Two days later, the pathologist, along with the detective, turned up at her flat. She hadn’t known that pathologists played such a big part in the investigation, but it did ring a vague bell somewhere in the back of her mind; something about a public relations course that one of her medical student friends had had to take during the summer holidays. It didn’t matter anyway, but she was glad that she was here. There was something about her – probably training – but it made her feel easier.

“I’m Detective Anderson, and this is Doctor Alexander,” the detective said, sitting down on her sofa without asking for her permission. He was wearing a suit that didn’t quite fit, like he had inherited it from an older, larger brother.

“Nikki,” the pathologist elaborated, smiling at her and shaking her hand. It was good handshake, firm but not bruising. Uther had often ranted about a handshake being the best measure of a person. Morgana, apparently, had always had a soft handshake. He had reminded her of it often, not that it seemed important now.

Morgana smiled back politely, gesturing for Dr. Alexander to take a seat. She did.

“We’ve spoken to your work colleagues, Miss Lafferty. They say that you had a... rocky relationship with your step-father,” the detective said.

“We had our differences,” Morgana confirmed, a little defensiveness slipping into her voice. She had nothing to be defensive about, and acting as if she did wouldn’t do her any favours. “But I didn’t kill him if that’s what you’re getting at.” She wasn’t doing well at not sounding defensive, at all. 

“How did he die?” She directed her question at Dr. Alexander, she didn’t like the detective.

The blonde shifted uncomfortably, as if deciding whether she should answer the question.

“There were high levels of synthetic insulin in his system.”

“He was type 2, diet managed,” Morgana said, confusion etched on her face. “He’d never taken insulin in his life.”

“It appears that it induced a hypoglycaemic coma, which lead to his death.”

“Someone injected him with it?” Morgana asked. There were plenty of people with an axe to grind with him but she couldn’t imagine someone actually killing him. He wasn’t harmless, but he wasn’t that bad either.

“I’m sorry, we can’t release that information at this time,” the detective said. Morgana had forgotten his name already.

“Well he didn’t ingest it,” she scoffed, “unless it was one hell of a lot of insulin.”

The detective looked at her with suspicion. “You seem to know a lot about it.”

“It doesn’t exactly take an expert, it’s pretty common knowledge. Have you ever seen anyone taking insulin tablets?” Morgana had to admit that that sounded  _really_ defensive. She was surprised when the doctor dropped her head to hide a smile. There was flutter in Morgana’s stomach, and she had to suppress her own smile.

“Miss Lafferty, did you argue with your step-father on the night he died?” the detective asked.

“Well that would depend on the night he died.” She tried not to sound short, but her patience with him was failing quickly.

“Saturday,” the detective said tightly.

“Then no,” Morgana answered, raising her eyebrows to emphasise her point.

“How about the night before?”

“Yes.”

“What about?”

“My work, Gwen, politics; take your pick.” Morgana sat back, crossing her legs and arms. She knew it made her look guilty, but she was past caring. The further she got from the original nausea of his death, the less she realised she cared. She wasn’t a monster, she truly was sorry for Arthur, but the man had made her life as difficult as he possibly could.

“Gwen? You are referring to Guinevere Pendragon, your brother’s wife?”

“Yes.”

“Your ex-girlfriend?”

Morgana felt cold heat sweep her body. It wasn’t a secret that she and Gwen had a past, but it wasn’t exactly something that was discussed at family get-togethers. “Yes.”

“It’s a bit strange isn’t it, your brother marrying your ex-girlfriend?”

“No.” She was down to single word answers, her ire flaring.

“What about your work? Is it true that your step-father was shutting down your research project?”

“He tried.”

“Why?”

“It wasn’t expected to make enough money. I had used up my budget. Results weren’t clear cut enough for him.”

“That’s a lot of reasons.” He sat forward, resting his elbows on his knees and clasping his hands.

“Yes.”

“Did it make you angry that he was cutting the project?”

“Arthur had stepped in to fund it, the problem was resolved.”

“Is it true that Guinevere convinced your brother to back your venture?” he asked.

“I believe so.”

“Why would she do that?”

“Her father died of a methacillin-resistant Stephylococcus aureus infection. My research is into new antibiotic avenues, specifically a membrane disrupting protein – known as MDP9CW2 – that also traverses and damages the cell wall.”

The detective stared at her; she had to try very hard not to role her eyes.

“MRSA,” Dr. Alexander told the detective. He nodded.

“So she had a personal interest in the project?”

“Yes.”

“It was nothing to do with your relationship?” he asked.

“No,” Morgana said. “We’ve been good friends for a number of years since our romantic relationship ended, as hard as that may be for you to believe. What does this have to do with Uther’s death?”

The detective took a sharp, annoyed intake of breath and the doctor had to hide another smile. Morgana could tell that she was enjoying this, and Morgana was enjoying giving her a show. She realised that she hadn’t really looked at this Nikki Alexander yet, and when she did look, she was sorry she hadn’t done so earlier. She was absolutely beautiful. And she obviously shared Morgana’s opinion that the detective was an arse.

“As you are aware,” Dr. Alexander began, “we have reason to believe that his death was suspicious. We just need to get all the facts straight.” She gave her a reassuring almost-smile.

 “All I know is that when I last saw him, he was alive. Now he’s dead. I’m sorry if you don’t think I’m adequately grieving, but he wasn’t exactly pleasant to me. I’m not happy he’s dead, I’m certainly not happy that Arthur is hurting, but he wasn’t  _my_  father.”

“We understand,” the doctor, Nikki, said in a soft tone.

From his frown it was obvious that the detective didn’t understand, and that he had probably already decided that she had done it. It worried her a little; police had always seemed to find a way of making her look guilty in the past. Her doorbell rang just as he was about to ask another question.


	2. Chapter 2

It was dark outside and Harry was still at work. He was wading through countless pages of court transcripts from his past appearances as an expert witness and comparing it to the text of his latest witness statement, trying to tease out what exactly it had been that made the jury turn against him. Leo had patted him on the back and made a joke about it being his accent, that it had isolated half the courtroom. He would have found it funny if it hadn’t been his theory as well.

The case had been a faked suicide – at least that was the angle he was arguing – but the jury had unanimously acquitted the defendant, despite the wealth of evidence to the opposite that Harry had presented. It would be easy to blame the prosecutor or say that the defending counsel had been too good, but he knew that for some reason the jury hadn’t quite believed him. The evidence hadn’t been complicated. He hadn’t used specialist or cutting edge techniques. Yethe hadn’t managed to convince them and he just didn’t know why. He had never had a problem before, so why now?

Deep in self-reflection, Harry almost missed her coming in. She took off her coat, slung it messily on the back of her chair, and sat down softly, deep in her own thoughts. She didn’t say a word.

It was odd, very odd. And Harry didn’t like it.

“What’s got you brooding?” he asked, eyes pinched suspiciously, though in good humour, closing the transcript he was reading. He sat back on his chair, twirling on it until he was facing her. He was going to use Nikki to distract himself, that always seemed to work; it wastheir mutual coping mechanism.

Nikki looked up at him, surprised, almost as if she hadn’t noticed him sitting there. “Nothing.” She rested her forearms on her desk pushing aside the mountains of mess, and gave him a reassuring smile. “Just thinking.”

“Alright,” Harry said slowly, making sure she knew that he didn’t believe her and that she had by no means gotten away with not telling him. “How did it go with the stepdaughter? Do you think she did it?”

“No,” said Nikki, “I don’t think so.”

“Any particular reason?” Harry asked spinning on his chair in a childish way that he knew amused her.

“Not really, no,”

He raised an eyebrow at her. “Women’s intuition?”

She smiled. “Something like that.”

He frowned; she was serious. “The lab report arrived while you were out, the insulin was definitely synthetic.”

“We knew that already,” Nikki said, finding the report on her desk and flicking to the results page.

“Yes, but the good law enforcement people do insist on evidence,” Harry said, tilting his head and smiling at her. “As inconvenient as that may be to you.”

 She smiled back.

“What about toxicology, they still complaining about a backlog the size of Russia?” Nikki asked, closing the report and brushing a strand of escaped hair behind her ear.

Harry nodded. “It’ll be a week at the very earliest, and that’s only because half of them fancy you.”

“They never show this part on CSI.”

“No, they do  _want_ viewers,” Harry quipped, standing up and twirling in a circle. Nikki always managed to lift his mood, even when she wasn’t trying. He hoped he could do the same for her. “I’m on fire today!”

“That you are,” Nikki agreed, laughing.  “It’s what else you’re on that’s worrying me. I’d ask for a blood sample if toxicology were less useless.”

He grinned at her. “Touché.” After a long moment he said, “Nikki... do you think I sound too posh?”

She laughed.

 

 

Gwen smiled as Morgana handed her a cup of steaming Earl Gray.

“I’m impressed,” she said. “I would have thought you’d be torrid after your run in with that detective, but you’re remarkably composed. Arthur thinks detective whatever-he’s-called has already decided you did it. Arthur, fool that he is, spent half an hour trying to convince him you were innocent. It mostly did the opposite. There’s a reason you always won arguments with him when you were children.” She smiled at Morgana through the steam of her tea.

“He does think I did it,” Morgana confirmed. “But luckily for me, I think the pathologist might be on my side. Well, at least she doesn’t seem to have stamped ‘guilty’ on my mug shot yet.”

Gwen took a gulp of the hot tea and placed it on the ornate silver coaster that had most definitely been purchased from a little antique place that Morgana had just ‘stumbled upon’ in the way that no normal person could. One too many times, Gwen had been on the receiving end of one of Morgana’s overdramatic rants about rings on her stained pine furniture. If there was one thing about Morgana that never changed – because a lot  _did_  change – it was her almost pathological tidiness.

“Tell Arthur ‘thank you’,” Morgana said, smiling at the thought of her little brother sticking up for her. “How’s he doing?”

 A deep sigh escaped Gwen’s lips. “I don’t really think he’s had a moment to think about it, not with the responsibility of the company suddenly falling on his shoulders. You know, he wants so badly to change the way it’s run.”

Morgana nodded solemnly. “Business isn’t exactly his forte, neither is science. He sees everything with the eyes of a campaigner.”

“He has you to thank for that,” Gwen smiles. They both know that’s the part of Arthur that Gwen fell in love with the campaigner for the earth and humanity; the part that was most like his big sister. “He looks up to you.” She paused before revealing why she came. “I want you to help him. Take over the responsibility of running the company, at least for now, at least partially. He’s in no fit state.”

Morgana dropped her head, running her hand through her long dark hair.

“I know it’s a lot to ask. I know it will make you more of a target for the police.” She looked truly troubled and Morgana couldn’t find it in herself to blame her.

“Of course I will,” Morgana said, softly but determined, holding Gwen’s gaze. “Anything he needs.”

Gwen ignored a flutter in her stomach. “Thank you.”

“Not that I’m exactly the next Allan Sugar myself...”

 

The following morning, Morgana bypassed her lab in favour of the long brightly lit corridor to the administration wing. She hadn’t spent an awful lot of time there, she was a scientist, not a pencil pusher, and she wasn’t exactly known to come running when Uther called for her. If he really wanted to see her, he would have to come to her. There had always been apprehension in her gut when she had walked this part of the building in the past and she found that despite the fact that her stepfather no longer lay at the end of it, she still felt like she was walking the long solitary walk to the headmaster’s office.

Opening the door barely enough to peek around, she spotted Arthur sat at his father’s desk, staring angrily at a mass of papers.

“Arthur?”

He looked up and smiled hello. It wasn’t his usual bright smile but at least he was smiling again, even if he didn’t mean it. “Morgana.”

“I thought you might need some help, with the running of the place. I know how hard your father worked, and you already have a job...”

His eyes narrowed. “Gwen came round last night, didn’t she?”

Morgana nodded.

 “I should have known she would come to you.”

“She’s worried about you, we both are. I know what it’s like to lose a parent and suddenly have all these extra things to worry about, when all you want to do is wallow in how unfair it all is.” Morgana sat in the chair opposite Arthur’s, reaching across the desk to put her hand over his. “The last thing you need to be worrying about is battling GSK for patent rights or whatever it was that your father was doing. You need to be at home, planning.”

Arthur pulled his hand from hers and sighed deeply. He didn’t want to think about the funeral.

“Gwen told me you went off on that detective, over me. Thank you.” Morgana crossed her legs and leant back in the chair, giving Arthur space. She knew how hard it was to hold it all back when someone was being nice to you, the worst thing she could do was crowd him.

“Everyone who knows you knows that you could never do something like that,” he said, as if it was nothing. It didn’t feel like nothing to her.

“Still, thanks little brother.”

 

It took three days for Nikki to make another breakthrough. And as soon as she did, she couldn’t believe how long it had taken for her to notice it. It was one of the classic signs, something she had catalogued and reported on hundreds of times. In other cases, it had been the first thing she had looked for.

“Take a look at his eyes,” she said, manoeuvring the lens over the corpse’s left eye and gesturing to the magnified image on the screen. “Notice the vessels?”

“Petechial haemorrhages,” Harry confirmed. “Slight, but they’re there.”

“I don’t know why I didn’t see it sooner.”

“You had COD, there was no reason for you to look any further, especially not for signs of suffocation. There are no physical indications of strangulation and he wasn’t drowned. The killer must have gotten impatient with the amount of time the insulin overdose was taking to kill him and decided to take matters into his or her hands.” Harry smiled at her sadly. “Anyone could have missed it.”

“This means it’s definitely murder,” Nikki said, sighing. “He must have been smothered. I just assumed that the slight enlargement of the heart was down to old age. I missed it.”

“Come on,” Harry said, putting a hand on her shoulder and squeezing, “let’s go for a drink.”

 

Alcohol was out, both of them were on call, but it didn’t take long for the atmosphere of the bar to rub off on them, banishing thoughts of work to the backs of their minds. They laughed at recounted stories of shared hi-jinxes and the revelation of childhood stories that the other hadn’t heard before.

“It wasn’t my fault that the ice on the pond was thin!” Harry defended, swatting Nikki’s arm when she doubled over with laughter. “Oh, shit!” he swore, pulling his pager out of his pocket and squinting at the display.

“Oh, don’t go...” Nikki whined. “I was just starting to have fun.”

“No rest for the wicked,” he said kissing her cheek quickly, “sorry. Do you want a lift?”

She pouted, stirring her orange juice with her straw. “No, I’ll get a taxi.”

He tilted his head to the side and gave her his best puppy dog eyes. “You’re not mad at me, are you?”

She rolled her eyes at him. “No, I guess not.”

Grinning, he grabbed his coat, kissed her cheek again – avoiding another swat from her – and left.

Five minutes later, Nikki was more than ready to leave. She had never been one for drinking alone in bars, even if it was only juice. Pushing the glass away, she got to her feet and headed for the exit, walking straight into someone and sending a glass of red wine smashing onto the floor.

“God, I’m sorry. I wasn’t looking where I was...” Her words escaped her when she looked up into the bright blue eyes of her prime suspect.

“It’s alright, it doesn’t matter... Nikki, wasn’t it?” Morgana asked, taking a step backward and wiping a few beads of wine off her black coat. “I always wear black in anticipation of this very occasion.”

 “Buy me a drink and we’ll forget all about it?” Morgana suggested, smiling.

“I really shouldn’t,” Nikki said, her voice sounding far less convincing than she had hoped. “You’re a suspect in one of my current cases.”

“If I promise that I didn’t do it, do I get my wine?” Morgana asked.

Nikki laughed. “How do I know I can trust you?”

“You can search me if you want.”

Nikki shivered.

 Ignoring the tingling in her stomach she took a step back and stuffed her hands in her pockets. “I’ll leave that to the detectives.”

“The flirting isn’t working, is it?” Morgana asked, shaking her head but still smiling.

Nikki grinned. “No.”

“Well, you can’t blame a girl for trying.” They both stepped to the side as a bartender went at the smashed glass with a mini dustpan and brush. “How about I buy you an orange juice and we call it quits?”

“ _I_ knocked over  _your_  drink,” Nikki reminded her.

“Then I won’t but you a drink, and you won’t buy me a drink. But maybe you’ll save me from drinking alone. I was supposed to be meeting my brother but he pulled out at the last minute, leaving me feeling all neglected.” Morgana was flirting again and they both knew it.

“Well, we can’t have that now, can we?”


	3. Chapter 3

A good deal of money in the bartender's pocket later, Nikki was completely past caring that she shouldn’t be talking to Morgana. They were tucked away in a private booth; high heels abandoned on the floor and legs folded up beneath them. They lounged in one corner alone of the sizable booth, a wealth of space around them and not very much  _at all_  between them. Morgana’s hair was loose and wavy, falling over her almost bare shoulders in pitch black stark contrast to her pure white skin. She was recounting a childhood story in which Arthur had broken her arm by pushing her off a large rock; one hand wrapped elegantly around her glass of wine, the other engrossed in animating her story as Nikki laughed and wondered when it was exactly that she too had made the switch to wine.

Nikki was sure that she was in a much worse state of dishevelment than her drinking companion. She had accidently caught sight of herself in the ladies’ mirror. Generally, she made a point of not looking at herself in a mirror when she was out, then she could go on pretending that she looked the same as she had when she left the house. Her hair was falling down in golden strands around her face and her cardigan was making its way down her arm. Not exactly perfect, but the alcohol and company had somehow managed to make her not care.

Harry would kill her if they got another call and she couldn’t take it because she’d had a couple of glasses of wine... three glasses. Or was it four? Five, maybe? She looked at the two empty bottles on the table and groaned.

“I have to work tomorrow.” Her head fell into her palm, shaking slowly as she made another sound of displeasure at the thought. Looking at her watch only caused her more pain. “It’s three AM, what time does this bar stay open until?”

“I’m guessing not much longer,” Morgana said, smiling as she poured Nikki another glass of wine. “And you work with the dead, I’m pretty sure they won’t mind if you’re a little hung-over.”

Narrowing her eyes in insincere annoyance, Nikki looked up at Morgana. “That’s not the point.”

“No, I guess not.” Morgana laughed. “Still, one more drink won’t make it any worse.”

Nikki wasn’t sure why, but she was smiling. “One more?”

“One more.” Morgana confirmed, clinking her glass with Nikki’s.

“So,” Nikki began, “how’s life in a private lab?”

“Thrilling.” Sarcastic.

“Yes well, you are voluntarily working in the fascinating world of microbiology,” Nikki teased.

Morgana’s eyes went wide with indignation. “It  _is_  fascinating! It’s better than cutting up dead people!”

“I’d rather be solving crimes than waiting for a vaguely green liquid to drip through an immobilized metal ion affinity chromatography channel,” Nikki said, finding it hard to get her mouth around that sentence in her current state of non-soberness.

“How do you know that’s how I –”

“It came up in the investigation,” Nikki lied, taking a large gulp of wine.

 “How exactly?”

“You know, in the... background checks.” She was a terrible liar when she was inebriated. Actually, she wasn’t much better when she was sober, and she didn’t really think that was a bad thing.

Morgana raised an eyebrow.

“And I may have typed your name into PubMed...”

Rich laughter erupted from Morgana. “You read that article? Well, I think that brings the count up to three; Arthur, Gwen, and you. It wasn’t exactly published in  _Nature_.”

“No, well, it was a good first go.” It sounded a lot less patronising in her head. “And it is microbiology.” All she could do was laugh.

“With a medical application!” Morgana defended, mercifully laughing as well. “It could save  _thousands_ of lives!”

Ceasing her laughter and looking at Morgana carefully, Nikki said, “Do you really think it’ll work?”

“Yes.” Morgana smiled. “I think it will, eventually.”

“Then you’re doing a lot more good than I am,” Nikki said, smiling sadly. She had been wondering about a change of career lately, she very rarely got that rush from closing a case anymore. Maybe, she was thinking, she wasn’t doing that much good after all. And it wasn’t as if this is how she had envisioned her career.

“That’s not true,” Morgana said, her eyes holding Nikki’s intently; her hand on Nikki’s arm, thumb brushing back and forth. “You give people closure. You bring justice to those who’ve died, and sanity to those left behind. You do  _more_ than good.”

Nikki breathed in shakily. The world around them seemed to have come to a stop, things in her peripheral vision moving in inconsequential and unnoticeable slow motion. The part of her brain that wasn’t overly fond of logical thinking was screaming at her to kiss Morgana. She was so close, she smelled so good, her thumb was sending shivers through her body and those eyes... There were a hundred and one perfectly good reasons not to, not least of which was her involvement in Nikki’s case. Every sane part of her told her not to, but those objections were awfully quiet next the screaming part that was telling her to just go for it and worry about the consequences in the morning.

So she kissed her. And it was  _good._

It had the hazy edge that came from too much good wine, slow and languid in a way that first kisses rarely were. There was a hand on her cheek and another one on her thigh, making her heart beat faster and faster until it teetered on the edge of unbearable. It was all in that part that was so close to excruciating that it felt so good.

Morgana broke the kiss.

“You sure?” Morgana asked.

“No,” Nikki admitted, not moving. “This is a really, really bad idea,” she said, smiling and leaning in for another kiss.

 

 

When Nikki entered work the next day, she wore a secret smile. She had just finished changing to do the autopsy of a suspicious death that had come in early that morning, when her phone buzzed and lit up in her open back, trying to get her attention.

Flipping it open, she read the text:

**Had a really good time last night... and this morning.**

**M     XX**

She blushed and smirked, checking she was alone before typing a reply:

**Me too.**

 

Another message came quickly:

**Are you on call again tonight?**

**XX**

Nikki mentally went through her work schedule before replying:

**No, why?**

Another:

**Fancy coming around after work?**

**XX**

She knew she should say that she couldn’t, she could so easily lose her job over this. But instead she said:

 

**See you at eight?**

A final message:

 

**See you at eight. BTW, I found your necklace amongst the bed sheets.**

**XX**

 

Nikki reached for her necklace, finding nothing. She hadn’t noticed it was missing, she definitely didn’t remember taking it off. But then again, she probably wasn’t the one who had taken it off.

Heat crept up her spine as she let herself dwell on her memories of the night before. Guilt bubbled low in her stomach. She ignored it.

 

 

“What’s got you smirking?”

Morgana looked up from her morning paper – which she hadn’t been reading – to find her brother and sister-in-law standing in the doorway of her new make-shift office. It was beginning to become a pattern, people in doorways interrupting her scarce moments of relaxation (which may or may not have been on company time). She raised an eyebrow and tilted her head to the side questioningly.

“What’s going on?” she asked warily.

“I asked first,” Arthur said, crossing his arms.

She sighed, “It’s a long story.”

“Well, it’s a good job we’re taking you out to breakfast then,” Arthur said, smiling. There was definitely something going on here and she was pretty sure that she wasn’t going to like it. She never did when Arthur got that smile. And it had to be big for Arthur to forget his fathers...

Making an effort, Morgana smiled and reached for her bag. “If you’re paying, baby brother, how could I to refuse.”

 

 

“’Morning,” Nikki said, sitting down on the stool opposite Harry and sipping the coffee that was waiting for her. “What’ve we got?”

“Body found in the woods by a late night runner. Male, early twenties, Caucasian, gunshot wound to the chest,” Harry summarised.

“Gang related?”

“Looks like it, though we don’t have an ID yet so...”

Nikki yawned.

“Late night, was it?” Harry raised an eyebrow at her, smiling slightly. “You party on into the night after I left?”

She smiled noncommittally, remembering again how exactly her necklace had ended up tangled in those sheets.

“Nikki Alexander, did you _pull_ last night?” His eyes were wide with exaggerated shock, an open mouth finishing the look.

She had to hide her smile, taking a sip of her coffee. “Have you completed the preliminary examination? Sent trace evidence off to the lab?”

“As always.”

“Good, then let’s start, it’s Friday and I want to finish at a decent time.”

 

 

Morgana really, really didn’t like this. She was sitting on one of the supposedly comfortable sofas of her regular Starbucks, espresso in hand, watching Arthur and Gwen, who were sitting very close together on the opposite sofa. It was after ten, so they were pretty much alone in the back of the coffee shop. A quiet location wasn’t a good sign. Neither was the fact that Arthur was wringing his hands in what looked like a mixture of nerves and excitement. She could hear her heartbeat.

“Get on with it,” Morgana said, not unkindly.

“I –err – Gwen and I – We...” Arthur began, his mood shifting a little more towards nervous.

“I’m pregnant,” Gwen said, meeting Morgana’s eyes.

After a long moment in which her heart sunk a good few centimetres below its usual home, Morgana smiled in a way that she hoped was convincing. “Wow, congratulations!”

“I told you she’d be happy!” said Arthur, leaping to his feet and pulling Morgana up into a hug. “You’ll be a great aunty!”

Morgana met Gwen’s eyes over Arthur’s shoulder. Gwen looked away.

 “Of course I’m happy!” Morgana said, pulling back from Arthur and giving him a bright smile. She hugged him again, this time closing her eyes to avoid Gwen’s gaze. “Just don’t expect me to babysit. Me and kids are not a good combination.”

She took a deep breath and steadied herself.

“Like I’d trust you to babysit,” Arthur said teasingly. “Okay, I’m off. I have a meeting that I’m already late for. Gwen, you’ll drive Morgana back to work, right?”

Gwen nodded, smiling a not quite genuine smile. “Of course.”

“Great. Well, I’ll see you later.” He bent down to kiss Gwen before bouncing out of the coffee shop like the Andrex puppy.

With a puff of air, Morgana sat down heavily on her sofa and reached for her coffee. She would give anything for it to be Irish right now.

Logically, she had known that this day would come. Gwen had always been a family girl and she had never hidden her desire to have children, neither had Arthur. But there was just something about it that made Morgana feel... left out. It had been years since she and Gwen had been together, and even then it had been more of a ‘best friends taking things too far’ thing than a whirlwind romance. They had wanted different things out of life, or at least they had back then, and neither of them had been willing to compromise. It was all so long ago and they had been so much younger then. Morgana had been more concerned with the world’s injustices than life planning and Gwen had a stubbornness that had mellowed in the intervening years. Realistically, at no point had their relationship been going anywhere, and Morgana had been genuinely happy for Arthur and Gwen when they got married, but this was something different. This was where it got complicated.

“I wanted to tell you on my own, but Arthur wouldn’t have it. He’s so excited.” Gwen didn’t look at her. Instead she seemed to have found something very interesting in the bottom of her teacup.

“Sorry,” Morgana said, shaking her head, “I really  _am_  happy for you.”  _Somewhere_ , Morgana thought,  _somewhere_ deep _down_. She sat forward and rested her elbows on her knees. “I’m just being stupid.”

“I understand. I’d be lying if I said that you weren’t the first person I thought of, after Arthur,” Gwen said, looking at Morgana this time. “But I’m still your best friend Morgana, and nothing will ever change that, not Arthur and not the baby.”

Morgana smiled weakly. “I know, and I won’t let anything change it either. It’s just stupid sibling rivalry stuff, ignore it.”

Gwen smiled. “Good, because I want you to be the godmother.”

Morgana got shivers. “Really?”

“Of course.” Gwen laughed as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Who else would I want? Come on Morgana, you should know by now that you’re still one of the most important people in my life, and I’m really not looking to change that. You were here long before Arthur.”

A genuine smile pulled on Morgana’s lips. “Good, because I would really hate to lose you. No one can shout at me for being an idiot better than you can, I wouldn’t listen to anyone else. And I think I may have done something kind of stupid, but I can’t seem to get myself to feel bad about it, or try and stop it happening again. In fact, I seem to be actively perusing it. So I think you need to shout at me.”

“Go on.”

“Do you remember the pathologist?”

“Why do I have the horrible sinking feeling that I know where this is going?” Gwen asked.

“Because you know me better than anyone?” Morgana hedged, smiling in a way she hoped came across as endearing. “It wasn’t intentional. We met in a bar last night, after Arthur cancelled on me – the reason for which I’m pretty sure I know now – and her friend got called away. She bumped into me, literally, and knocked my drink straight out of my hand. She bought me another one... which turned into a bottle... which turned into two...” Morgana sighed. “Okay, so maybe I flirted with her a bit in the beginning, but I was only doing it to try to get her on my side and then we started talking and we just... clicked. I know it sounds like a cliché, but we had so much in common and it felt so easy, talking to her. We got closer and closer, and then she kissed me, which ended up with us kissing in a taxi, and then on my doorstep and then... Well, let’s just say that I ended up making her breakfast. And I may have invited her over tonight. I really like her.”

Gwen laughed. “Oh, Morgana. You are  _so_  much like your brother.”

Grumbling like a chastised teenager, Morgana fell backwards against the cushion. “I know.”


	4. Chapter 4

Morgana Lafferty wasn’t the type of person who got nervous. At least she didn’t usually get nervous, but that had apparently changed when someone had murdered her stepfather. She had never thought to look over her shoulder whilst walking home from the tube station in the dark before, but now she couldn’t go more than a few steps without the feeling that someone was watching her. At first she had convinced herself it was paranoia, but as the days wore on, she found herself starting to believe that maybe there was something more to it. She hadn’t thought about who had killed Uther at first; instead she had been busy worrying about herself and about Arthur; admittedly more about herself.

A lot of death had happened to Morgana in her relatively short life. She had only been fifteen when her mother died in a car crash; she’d had to be strong, Arthur was inconsolable and his father was too busy being selfish to comfort him. Her mother had been the last of her blood relatives, bar Arthur. She was no stranger to death, but none of her family had been murdered. What had happened to Uther was different. It was the reason she had gone out for a drink with Arthur the night before, when had bumped into Nikki. She just needed to get the thoughts out of her head.

The phone buzzed impatiently in its cradle.

“Arthur?” She held the phone between her shoulder and cheek, stirring the pan with one hand and searching the cupboard for cardamom with the other.

“It’s probably nothing but I wanted to phone you,” her brother began, hesitation in his voice. That was never a good way to start a conversation. “Gwen would kill me if she knew I was bothering you with this. She thinks I phone you too much.”

“Imagine that. Go on,” she encouraged, emptying the cardamom pods into her pestle and mortar and lightly crushing them. “I promise not to tell on you, no matter what she does to me. I can take it.”

“She’s been feeling really ill, Morgana, with the baby. I don’t think it’s normal, not this bad.” He was obviously worried; it made her feel bad for her second of jealousy over him when she had found out about the baby.

“How bad?”

“It isn’t just in the mornings, it’s at night too. And it’s probably during the day too but she won’t tell me,” he whispered.

“Arthur,” she said, amused, “are you  _hiding_ in the bathroom?”

“No...” he said defensively, before sighing in defeat. “I’m in the shed. Gwen was in the bathroom.”

She laughed. “It’s  _morning sickness_ , Arthur.”

“But I told you it’s during the-”

She cut him off. “Still morning sickness; it’s badly named, most things are. Don’t worry so much.” She knew that worrying about Gwen was stopping him thinking about his father, and maybe it was helping but...

“Do you really think so?” he asked.

“I’m as sure as I could be. She’s not fragile, Arthur, don’t treat her like she is.” Dumping the cardamom into another pan, it needed dry roasting before it went into the sauce. “Trust me. I’m speaking from bitter experience.”

Arthur laughed at that. “I remember. I had to clean up the broken china.”

“Exactly, so learn from my mistakes.” A dash more ginger and the sauce would be done. “I still have a scar on my foot from stepping on a shard you left on the floor.” It was cheating, but she was using powdered ginger.

“I was fifteen, I hadn’t fully developed my skills of cleaning up after my big sister’s domestics,” Arthur said, a hint of amusement in his voice.

“Hey, that was all your wife’s doing, not mine.” She smiled at the memory. “Gwen will be fine, she’s in perfect health. She would have told me if she was worried.”

“I know,” Arthur sighed. “I just... I really worry about her, after what happened with her mother.”

“Her mother was ill, Arthur, and it was almost thirty years ago. Nobody dies in childbirth anymore. Even if Gwen had it – and we know she doesn’t, she was tested as soon as she turned eighteen – modern medicine makes the risk would be almost negligible. Don’t you think I’ve already thought about this? That she’s thought about it?” She didn’t say that what had prompted Gwen’s test all those years ago had been a pregnancy scare. Morgana had been so relieved that she had kissed Gwen when she found out that she hadn’t inherited her mother’s condition. It had been their first kiss. Arthur didn’t need to know that.

“I know,” Arthur said again. “Thanks Morgana, I honestly don’t know what I’d do without you. You’ll be an amazing godmother.”

Morgana’s eyes stung. She blinked rapidly and shook her head until the feeling went away. “God, don’t be such a girl.”

He laughed. “I love you too.” There was a muffled noise. “Oh shit, I’ve got to go, I’ve been discovered. Run!”

There was a louder noise, the sound of Arthur protesting in a high voice and then, “ _Hello Morgana_...”

Morgana held her breath.

“I know it’s you, there’s no one else Arthur would go to the shed to call. The two of you are such children.”

Hanging up wasn’t an option. “Gwen, we weren’t talking about you, I swear,” Morgana lied.

“Yeah, right.”

“He’s just worried about you, don’t be too hard on him. I thought about the same things,” Morgana said. “Let him worry, please? I don’t want him dwelling on Uther.”

Gwen sighed.

“Don’t be angry with me,” Morgana pleaded in a tone that she knew worked on Gwen.

There was another, louder sigh.  “So, is she there yet?”

Morgana smiled. “No, I’m just making dinner,” she laughed nervously, “I can’t believe I’m actually making her dinner, oh God.”

Gwen laughed. “It’ll be fine, you’re a great cook.”

“We haven’t even had a proper date yet and I’m already making her dinner. What the hell am I doing?”

“Embracing the stereotype?” Gwen teased.

“God, never,” Morgana swore.

“Relax, Morgana. She wouldn’t be coming back so soon if she didn’t like you. And even if she wasn’t sure, she will be after she’s tasted your cooking.” Gwen’s voice was calm and sweet.

“I’m going to tell her I want to cool things off until after the case is closed,” Morgana said quickly. If she said it out loud then she’d have to do it.

“That’s probably for the best,” Gwen agreed. “If she likes you, she’ll still be there after it’s all over.”

The doorbell rang.

“Oh no, she’s here,” Morgana hissed.

“You’ll be great,” Gwen assured her. “Love you.”

“Love you too.”

Throwing the phone down on the counter, Morgana ran to the door, skidding to a stop just short and taking second to compose herself before opening it.

“Sorry, I’m a little bit early.” Nikki smiled nervously. “Traffic was surprisingly good, for a Friday night.” She handed Morgana a bottle of wine, it was expensive. “I’m not drinking, sorry, but I still brought this. I was going to get a taxi but one of my colleague’s cases really put me off. I drove instead.”

Morgana stood back to let her in. “Don’t worry about it, I’m not really a fan of taxi’s either. And as far as not drinking is concerned, I think I’ll join you. It’s no fun drinking alone. As long as you don’t mind me putting this in the wine the cellar? I promise it won’t go to waste.”

“By all means,” Nikki said, stepping inside. The thing about taxis was a lie. She needed to take alcohol out of the equation before she did anything... else. It had been playing on her mind all day. Flashes, of memories she didn’t exactly find unpleasant kept interrupting her thoughts. They weren’t things she had thought about before, but now she had started, now she had firsthand knowledge, she couldn’t stop thinking about them. She wanted to tell Harry about it. He would know what to say, when he had finished teasing her. But she couldn’t, it could get her fired. And he wouldn’t understand, not with Morgana being a suspect. She couldn’t put him in that position. “I was brought up never to turn up at someone’s house without a gift, and wine seemed... apt. Plus, I came straight from work so the off-licence was the best I could do.”

“It’s good, I love South African wine. I spent a summer there when I was at university. It was gorgeous,” Morgana said, closing the door, leaning back against it and closing her eyes for a second. She pushed back into a walk just before Nikki turned around.

“I grew up there,” Nikki said, smiling. “It’s a beautiful country.”

Morgana thanked God that she hadn’t told her South African horror story the moment she had seen the bottle, she very nearly had. There had been a break-in into her and Gwen’s apartment. She had never forgiven herself for leaving Gwen alone that night, even if it had only been for an hour. They hadn’t taken anything valuable but they had threatened Gwen. It was a blessing that was all they had done.

“It wasn’t without its issues though,” Nikki continued. “But all the most beautiful places have their troubles.”

“I hear you,” Morgana agreed.

Nikki looked at the photo of a dark skyline hanging up in the otherwise white hall, and nodded. “Dublin?”

“Derry, actually. I was born there but my mum and I moved after my Dad was killed in a bombing. We had family in rural Galway so we spent a few years there. We moved to Dublin after Arthur was born, hence the accent. Not that you asked for my life history, sorry.” She shook her head and gestured towards the door to the living room. “It’s something I try not to talk about much; I tend to get too engrossed in the politics.”

“I know what you mean.” Nikki said, sitting on the sofa. “There’s something about the place you come from...”

“Runs deep in you veins,” Morgana said. “Whether you want it too or not.”

Nikki smiled. Maybe she had more in common with Morgana than she had thought, though it wasn’t exactly their differences that were worrying her.

“I –err – I’d better put this away,” Morgana said, holding up the wine. “Would you like a drink? Non-alcoholic of course.”

“I don’t suppose you have tea, do you?” Nikki asked. “I’m dying for a cup.”

“It’s not usually my thing but I think I have some PG Tips for my sister-in-law. Is that okay?”

Nikki nodded gratefully. “That sounds great.”

~*~

“Still here?”

Harry looked up from his desk to see Leo walking towards him, file in hand. For the second night on the run, Harry was working late, and he didn’t like it.

“Apparently so,” Harry said, sitting back in his chair. “What have you got?”

“Nikki must have gotten the lab to rush through the DNA results on the Pendragon case,” Leo said, dropping the report on Nikki’s desk. “I think the entire lab fancies her.”

“And?”

“There was a second sample, but there were no matches on the database,” Leo supplied. “But it does look like we’re looking at a female killer. That is, if the sample came from the killer. It could just have easily come from his secretary.”

Harry frowned. “Do you think it was the stepdaughter?”

Leo shrugged. “She would certainly have the expertise to pull it off, but nowadays, with the internet, everybody does. I don’t think DNA will be the linchpin in this case, but then again, it rarely is in the real world. What do you think?”

“I think that Nikki believes she’s innocent, and that she’s probably right. She has no reason to  _want_  her to be innocent,” Harry said, twirling his pen in his hand. “Are you going to phone her?”

“No, it can wait until Monday. It’s not as if this one’s up against the clock. She deserves the break.”

Harry nodded, and then sprang forward. “Hey, how do you fancy going for a drink? It is Friday and the lovely Dr Alexander has let me down.”

“Sorry, no can do, I’m afraid. We’re going out for a meal tonight. Next week?” Leo offered.

“Yeah, next week. I’ll invite Nikki.” Harry smiled.

“Right, that’s me done then. See you on Monday, and hopefully not before.” Leo smiled, turning to leave. “Oh, and Harry?”

Harry looked up.

“Go home. And don’t even think about calling Nikki about this. It’s been a long time since she’s had a weekend.”

Five minutes later, he had his coat on and was heading for the door when the DNA result file caught his eye. It couldn’t hurt to phone and tell Nikki, could it? She would want to know, and it didn’t mean that she had to come back and work on it. They couldn’t do anything until the detective had talked to the family and DNA samples had been collected. He might even get a reward.

He flipped open his phone and speed dialled Nikki’s mobile.

~*~

“This is lovely,” Nikki said, taking another bite of the pasta. “And I’m not just saying that to be polite. Where did you learn how to cook like this?”

They were sat at the dining table at the far end of the open plan living room. Led Zeppelin was playing low in the background and there was a candle flickering between them. It was perfect, and Morgana made it look effortless.

“Here and there,” Morgana said vaguely. “Uther wasn’t exactly much of cook, so I picked it up. My mother was an excellent cook, much better than I am. I really whished I’d paid more attention when she tried to teach me. They shared a smile.

She took a deep breath. “Nikki, I really like you.”

A hot wave passed through Nikki’s body.

“But I think it’s better if we cool things off... until the case is over,” Morgana finished. “It isn’t worth the risk, for both of us. I’m sorry that I invited you all the way over here to say that.”

Nikki felt simultaneously disappointed and relieved.

“Last night was good, really good, but... things are just too complicated at the moment. Can we be... friends, in the meantime?” Morgana’s brow was pinched with worry and her eyes were the so dark Nikki was afraid she would drown in them.

“Of course,” Nikki said, wishing she didn’t sound out of breath. “I agree, and to be honest, I have a lot to think about, so the time will be good.” She blushed. “Last night was the first –”

“I know,” Morgana cut her off. She laughed gently. “It takes a lot of working out in your head, doesn’t it?”

Nikki nodded, smiling.

“I hope I didn’t put you off,” Morgana smiled charmingly.

“No, quite the contrary.” She blushed. “I’m ashamed to say I was a little distracted at work today.” Any awkwardness that had been between them was slowly melting away. “And I can’t even talk to my best friend about it. We work together, it wouldn’t be fair on him.”

“I have a confession,” Morgan said, biting her lip in a way that didn’t quite come across as nervousness. “I told Gwen, my sister-in-law. She won’t tell anyone though. She –err – actually just told me today that her and my brother are expecting a baby.”

Nikki tilted her head to the side and smiled slightly. “And how do you feel about that? Not that I’m agreeing with the good detective’s opinion on your family arrangements.”

“Honestly? At first it bothered me a little, but I’m fine with it now. I can’t complain about becoming a godmother and an aunty all at once. They really are great together, Gwen and Arthur.” Morgana speared the last piece of pasta on her plate. “They make each other happy, and that makes me happy. I know it’s pretty unconventional, but it works for us. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Nikki jolted in her seat and reached for her pocket, “Sorry, it’s my phone. It might be work.”

Morgana gestured for her to take it. “Go ahead. I’ll take the plates to the kitchen.”

“Thanks.”

As Morgana disappeared out the door, Nikki accepted the call. “Hello, Harry? Are you determined to ruin another Friday night.”


	5. Chapter 5

“I’m sorry I have to rush off,” Nikki said, quickly pulling on her coat. “I’d try to reassure you that this was unusual but I’d be lying.” She un-tucked her hair from her coat and shivered, she hated how cold coats were when you put them on, it was so very unhelpful. Why couldn’t someone invent a self warming coat? It was no use if you had to warm them up yourself first, it defeated the object.

To Nikki’s surprise, Morgana didn’t seem irritated at all. That was certainly a first. Several of her relationships had been dead in the water from the moment her phone went off during a date. That’s if they even got to a date, most of the time they had gone running the moment she had answered their question, “Patholo-”. She never did quite get to finish the word before they were out the door. It was so much easier when she could say that she was an anthropologist and they could pretend to know what that meant.

The far away sound of a siren brought her back to the present.

 “No need to apologise,” Morgana smiled, handing Nikki her scarf. “More dessert for me.”

 “Ah, so you’re pleased to get rid of me,” Nikki teased, leaning against the hall wall and tucking a stray strand of hair – that wasn’t there – behind her ear.

“Well, I always have been a bit of a chocoholic,” Morgana quipped. She ran a hand through her hair and concentrated  _very hard_  on not taking step closer to trap Nikki against the wall. “If you have five minutes, I can put one in Tupperware for you?”

Nikki smiled impishly, biting her lip. “Five minutes. And then I’m  _definitely_  leaving.”

~*~

Forty minutes later, she found Harry standing in front of one of the lab’s interactive screens, looking over crime scene photos from the Pendragon house. He looked as though he’d been dragged through hedge – no, make that a forest – backwards. Evidently he had taken a shower and decided to forgo a hairdryer, which was not a good idea with hair like his, long as it currently was; the back of his blue shirt sported a dark wet patch dripping down from his collar to the middle of his back and his left shoe trailed its laces on the floor. It was impossible not to smile.

“So, what’s this big news? What did the DNA results turn up?” Nikki asked, dropping her bag and the molten centred chocolate pudding on the table. “This better be good, I thought I’d finished for the weekend.”

When Harry turned around, he eyed Nikki appreciatively, eyes wide with exaggerated shock. “Wow, now I know you’re keeping something from me. Who’s got you all dressed up to the nines after a ten hour shift?”

“None of your business,” Nikki smirked. “The results?”

“Nothing came up on the database but we did get sex, female.” He swept his hand across the screen, enlarging the DNA profile. “I faxed the report over to DI Anderson but I haven’t heard back from him yet.”

“No, that would ruin his plans for a relaxing weekend,” Nikki said, the tone of her voice making clear she disliked the man. It was an opinion that she knew Harry shared.

“I assume that, when he does get back to me, he’ll want samples from the family, especially the stepdaughter.” Harry went back to the crime scene photos. “That should be a fun Monday morning, people are always so happy to have a swab poking about in their mouths.”

“Anderson should widen the net. He was a successful business man in a fiercely competitive industry. He’s bound to have stepped on a few toes on his way up the career ladder.” Nikki said, carrying on before Harry could question her. “Why are you looking at the crime scene photos, there was nothing out of place?”

“Just a hunch.” It was intentionally cryptic.

“What  _kind_ of a hunch?” Nikki asked.

“None of your business,” Harry retorted, grinning.

Nikki laughed, “Touché. Fancy a cup?”

“As long as you put something in it.”

Rolling her eyes, Nikki headed for the door. “What is it with you and working late? It makes you go even stranger than you usually are. I’m not quite sure I want to add caffeine to your current state, even if it is only tea.”

Five minutes later, cups in hand, she returned to find Harry helping himself to her chocolate pudding.

“Harry!” she protested, her voice whiny with inevitable defeat. “That was my consolation prize for an evening well and truly ruined by something you could just have easily told me over the phone.” No matter how much she wanted to be, she couldn’t truly be annoyed at Harry over something like this. Which was in itself incredibly annoying.

“Consolation prize from what?” He curled an arm protectively around the plastic container. It was his food now, and he was going to protect it with his life. “And which restaurant is so climate change denying that they have plastic containers for doggy bags? Not to mention the included silverware.”

“Who said anything about a restaurant?” Nikki raised an eyebrow at him.

 “Well, it’s either from a restaurant, or you’re having a whirlwind affair with Marco Pierre White.” Another forkful of oozing chocolaty goodness disappeared into his mouth. “And not even you have taste that bad.”

“That, I can neither confirm nor deny,” Nikki said, putting Harry’s cup of tea in front of him and making an unsuccessful grab for the pudding. “Come on Harry, I haven’t even had a bite.”

He held up his hands in surrender and pushed the container towards her. There was approximately one forkful sitting lonely in the bottom.

“I really do hate you sometimes,” Nikki muttered, taking the fork from him and going in for her one and only taste. The moment it passed her lips, an irrepressible moan reverberated in her throat. “Oh  _God_ , that’s good.”

“Told you.”

“I am definitely going to find a way to pay you back for this, and it isn’t going to be pleasant, not for you anyway.” Her eyes will still closed as she savoured the taste.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you, there’s a note at the bottom of the container. I didn’t open it,” he was smiling at her genuinely now, without a hint of amusement or mischief. Not opening it was worth it, getting to see the sparkle of anticipation in Nikki’s eyes.

~*~

It felt incredibly girly and teenage, but had Nikki waited until she was sat cross-legged on her bed in her nightie to open the note. She laughed at what was inside.

I’ll need the fork back, its part of a set.

Below it, in smaller writing:

What did you expect, a love letter? I’m not that kind of girl. XX

She checked the clock. Twelve am. Not too late to call.

Morgana picked up on the third ring. “You got my note then?”

Nikki laughed. “Yes.”

“So, how was it?” Morgana asked, her voice low and rich.

“The note?”

“The pudding,” Morgana clarified, amused.

“The one bite I did manage to have was heavenly. Unfortunately, my college stole the rest. I’m going to make him suffer for it.”

“I’ll have to make you another,” Morgana said, her smile evident in her voice. “But don’t go getting any ideas about me and the kitchen.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Nikki smiled.

“Good,” Morgana said. “Besides, next time I’ll expect you to cook for me.”

“Trust me, you  _really_ don’t want that.”

“It’s only fair. You may not be used to it Nikki, but that’s how this works,  _give_  and  _take_.”

Nikki shivered. “I can’t wait until this case is over.”

Morgana sighed. “You have no idea how hard it was not to push you against the wall and kiss you tonight.”

“About as hard as it was not to make you.” Nikki’s voice sounded strange to her own ears, as if she was hearing it from far away. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “I don’t know if I can do this, wait until it’s over.”

“We have to,” Morgana said reluctantly.

“I could take myself off the case,” Nikki said. “If I told Harry, my colleague, he would take over. I know he would.”

“That wouldn’t change anything, you’ve already been too involved,” Morgana reasoned. “And that bloody detective would just try and make it seem like I’m using you.”

Nikki took a shaking breath. “I know you aren’t doing that.”

“I know,” Morgana said, “but we can’t take any chances. As far as they know nothing has happened, we don’t even know each other. Even if they do find out, all they will see is a drunken one night stand that you nipped in the bud the next morning when you realised who I was.” She paused. “I’m worried about this, Nikki. I keep feeling like somebody’s watching me. I need you to catch whoever did this so I can feel safe again.”

“It’s only natural,” Nikki assured. “Something like this... it makes you think.”

Morgana laughed. “This conversation is getting way too serious for this late at night and this early in a...”

“Relationship?” Nikki offered.

“Not that this is a relationship. That would be a conflict of interest.”

“Of course,” Nikki agreed, smiling. “Look, I’d better go. I’ll see you soon, but you aren’t going to like it.”

“The case?”

“Unfortunately.”

“I trust you,” Morgana said. “You have a reputation for giving evidence as you see it, looking at the facts objectively, no matter what the police think. It’s amazing what you can find out on the internet”

“Did you  _Google_  me?” Nikki asked, laughing.

“After you left tonight. Two can play at that game.”

“Goodnight, Morgana.”

“Goodnight, Nikki.”

~*~

Monday morning came far too quickly and Nikki found herself once again faced with Harry and a cold feeling of unease in her stomach. No matter how hard she tried to convince herself that the sureness she felt when she was around Morgana was right, she knew that keeping it to herself any longer was not a good idea. By a stroke of luck, she found herself alone in the lab with Harry.

“Harry,” she began, not really knowing what she was going to say next.

“Hmm?”

“I need you to take over the Pendragon case. You were present at the autopsy and all of the evidence has gone through you as well as me,” she said, holding Harry’s gaze to show she was serious.

“Any particular reason?” he asked, tilting his head and smirking at her.

“I’m... involved – personally – with one of the family, one of the possible suspects,” she said, leaning back against the sinks.

“Personally?” Harry inquired.

“Sexually, romantically, whatever you want to call it.” Nikki said, exhaling sharply.

Harry frowned. “Not the son?”

“No,” Nikki said, sighing and looking her feet. “Harry, you have to promise me that you –”

He cut her off. “Of course, Nikki, you know that. Anything.”

“Morgana,” she said quietly. When he didn’t say anything, she carried on. “We met in the bar on Thursday night, after you left. We had a few drinks, talked – not about the case, just... about work, her work, my work, university, music... I wasn’t drunk.” She said the last bit defensively.

“Never said you were,” Harry said, holding up his hands.

“Sorry.” Nikki shook her head. “There was just... something between us, I don’t know what, and we were sitting so close and... I instigated it, not her.”

“Go on,” Harry encouraged, smiling slightly to reassure her.

“I spent the night at hers.” She smiled despite her the fact that her heart was pounding in her chest. “I was at her house when you called on Friday. She’s cooled it off, until after the case is over.” She looked up at him. “I really like her, Harry.  _Really_  like her.”

“So you want to pursue it?”

She nodded, taking a shaky breath.

Harry sighed and wrapped his arms around her, resting his chin on her head. “You picked some person to have a personal revelation with,” he said softly. “I’ll have it put on record that you came to me over a conflict of interest that developed on the case. It won’t count against you and it won’t impact the case. You can still be involved as long as you don’t solely handle any evidence.”

“Thank you, Harry,” Nikki whispered, sinking into him.

“No problem.” He gave her a squeeze. “Now, how do you fancy filling me in on the details of your night with the mysterious Morgana Pendragon.”

“Lafferty,” Nikki corrected. “And you should be so lucky.”

“So it was good then?” He pinched her side lightly to make her squirm.

She laughed. “I told you I went back the next day, didn’t I?”


	6. Chapter 6

When Morgana opened her door that evening it was not, as she had expected, to reveal Nikki, but instead to let in another pathologist along with the detective she disliked so much. It had only taken her a second to work out that this new pathologist had full knowledge of her... whatever it was, with Nikki. A good thing, it had to be. There was less risk now and far less chance of either of them getting in trouble. She was glad to have some relief from the feeling that she was about to be summoned to the head teacher’s office; a feeling she had never had to worry about when she was actually at school. The thing that gave everything away was the look in the eye of the man – whose name she remembered was Harry – when he shook her hand. And then squeezing it twice in what he obviously believed was an incredibly intelligent secret signal. It wasn’t.

It turned out that it was a good job that she already knew his name as the good detective saw no reason to introduce him, and Harry showed no signs of doing so either. In fact, the detective seemed rather annoyed to not be accompanied by Nikki. This, of course, made the sadness of her absence a little better for Morgana.

“Are you going to tell me why you’re here, detective, or do you require a donut as an incentive?” Morgana said brightly.

Harry stifled a laugh. Morgana decided she liked him.

“We require a DNA sample,” Harry said, holding up the swab.

“Damn, you work fast...” Morgana drawled good-naturedly. She took the swab, rubbed it against the inside of her cheek, twirling it around, before handing it back. “Is that us done?”

“Actually, Miss Lafferty, it is protocol for the pathologist to collect the sample.” The detective’s tone was short.

“And how exactly could I have contaminated or falsified the sample, in any way?” Morgana asked, crossing her arms and tilting her head to the side.

“Protocol is there to be followed...”

“Its fine,” Harry interjected, raising a hand to silence the DI. He nodded towards Morgana. “Thank you.”

She smiled.

“I have a few questions,” the detective said, sitting down uninvited – for the second time – on her sofa.

Morgana bit back,  _of course you do_. She gestured for Harry to take a seat. He took it graciously. “Go ahead.”

“Are you aware that your sister-in-law, who is also your ex-girlfriend, is pregnant?”

“Are you asking me if I’m aware that she’s pregnant, or if I’m aware that she’s my ex-girlfriend?” Morgana asked, taking a seat and crossing her legs gracefully. She cut him off before he could answer. “No matter, the answer’s the same to both. Yes.”

“And were you aware of this before your step-father’s death?”

“No.”

“How do you feel about it?”

“I’m thrilled. I’m to be godmother,” Morgana said, as if she was getting one over on the detective, which, of course, she was. “Do you have any more questions?”

“Just one,” he began. “Is it true that you have taken over control of the company on your brother’s behalf, following the death of his father?”

“In a way,” Morgana tried not to sound defensive. “He has no experience of running a company and no experience in the biotech industry. His father has just died and he can’t run it on his own. I’m his big sister; he’s my responsibility.”

“And so naturally the company is your responsibility too?” Now he sounded like he thought he had the upper hand.

“Gwen asked me to help him. He needed my help. That’s all there is to it.” Morgana flicked her hair off her shoulder. “Is that everything or do you want me to get out my school report?”

The detective stood, quickly followed by Harry. “This,” he said, gesturing to the sample in Harry’s hand, “will be going for priority 24-hour analysis. You’ll be hearing from us again very soon.”

“Can’t wait.”

Harry nodded a meek goodbye.

~*~

Nikki frowned as her phone buzzed twice in quick succession. That was never good, that usually meant she was being summoned to some roadside or violated home. Pulling off her gloves and reaching into her pocket, she pulled out the phone and gestured for her assistant to close up. She was finished anyway.

Once she had pushed through the double doors, she opened the first message. It was from Harry.

**I approve.**

She smiled and quickly replied with a sarcastic:

**Thank god. I’d have to end it otherwise. You on your way to get the other sample?**

He quickly replied.

**As we speak.**

Walking into the changing room and pulling her hair out of its ponytail, she texted:

**Make sure Anderson doesn’t scare them. They don’t need it right now.**

Harry, again, replied quickly.

**Will do. Morgana managed to keep him in his place. It was most enjoyable to watch.**

Satisfied with her conversation with Harry, she opened the other message. It was from Morgana.

**I’m glad you told Harry. You needed someone else to talk to. He was nice, but then again anyone seems like a saint next DI what’s-his-name.  I’d say ‘have a good day’ if it didn’t sound American and you didn’t work in a mortuary. Speak to you soon. Xx**

**And I already know I write long texts, must be the liberal artist-type in me. ;)**

Nikki laughed, feeling her cheeks warm contentedly after their chill in the autopsy room. She thought for a moment before texting back.

**He approves of you, which is rare. I think he enjoyed seeing you square up with DI Anderson. You might want to call Arthur and Gwen in about an hour, they’re getting their own visit for a DNA sample and we both know how tactless Anderson can be.**

**‘Have a good day!’**

She didn’t put a kiss. She never put a kiss. Maybe in six months or so, if things went well.

Leo appeared at the door. “Nikki, I thought you were out with DI Anderson.”

“Harry’s taking over. His workload was lot lighter than mine and for some reason he’s being nice to me lately.” Nikki was very pleased with her answer; she had worked it out with Harry earlier. Well, not the him not usually being nice to her thing, but she liked to inject a bit of humour every now and again.

Leo nodded. “Good, you’ve been working too hard lately. I still can’t believe Harry got you back here on Friday.”

“He must have missed me,” Nikki smiled. “A call just came in for you, sounded big. I wrote the address down on a post-it and stuck it to your phone.”

He sighed. “Mondays are always the same. People don’t turn up for work and the alarm is raised. I don’t suppose you fancy accompanying me?”

“I just got rid of a case,” she laughed. “But for you... go on then. Give me 5 minutes to freshen up.”

“Thanks.”

~*~

Morgana didn’t have to wait an hour; she got a call from Gwen before half an hour had passed.

“Arthur’s fuming,” Gwen informed her, sounding less than sunshine and rainbows herself. “If it hadn’t been for that pathologist –”

“Harry,” Morgana interrupted.

“Yes Harry, anyway, if it hadn’t been for him I’m pretty sure Arthur would have punched him. The detective, I mean.” She paused for a second. “What is it with you and pathologists? It’s not a new fetish is it?”

Morgana laughed, “I’ll let you know. How’s Arthur now?”

“He’s having a nice calming cup of mint tea. He seems to be doing anything I say since he found out I was pregnant, it almost makes up for the sickness.” Gwen’s voice was light, which was good; it meant they hadn’t had the inquisition she had.

“How  _are_  you feeling today?” Morgana asked.

“Not too bad. How about you, how’s love at first sight treating you?”

Morgana scoffed. “I wouldn’t go that far.”

“Come on Morgana, I know you,  _really_ know you. You don’t get this way over a girl every day,” Gwen said. “Okay, so maybe love at first sight is a bit much, but you do really like her, and that hasn’t happened for a long time.”

Thankfully, Morgana’s blush couldn’t be seen over the phone.

“I’m happy for you Morgana, you deserve it. You’ve spent too long on your own. I can’t wait to meet her properly.” She sounded sincere, enthusiastic even.

Changing the subject, Morgana spoke again. “How are you? After your little visit, I mean.”

“Fine, I just wish that this was all over.”

Morgana sighed, leaning back in her chair. “I know how you feel. Something about this is making uneasy, and not just because someone killed Uther. He wasn’t exactly my favourite person in the world but I can’t think of any reason someone would want him dead.”

There was a rustle on the other end of the line; Gwen had left the room, obviously getting out of Arthur’s earshot. “The only things I can think of are money or the business, and even then someone killing him over them seems unlikely. I can’t imagine anyone killing someone, whatever the reason.”

A warm smiled drifted onto Morgana’s face. “That’s because you’re an angel. You never think bad of anyone.”

“You know more than anyone that I have a temper,” Gwen said quietly. “I shouted at Arthur last night, he was being too over protective. I think I really upset him.”

“He didn’t call me.” It was Morgana’s way of saying that he couldn’t have been that upset. He always called her when he was upset, and she called him. At least she usually did. “Gwen, have you been feeling weird lately, when you’re out? Like someone’s watching you?”

“Is this your way of asking me if being pregnant is making me paranoid? What has Arthur said to you?”

“Nothing, I just – It doesn’t matter.” She sighed deeply.

“You should come over for dinner tonight.” It wasn’t a request. Gwen was deceptively good at giving orders. “You can tell Arthur about Nikki. He knows there’s something you aren’t telling him.”

There was no way she could refuse. “What time do you want me?”

“Now.”

~*~

When Nikki and Leo got to the quiet suburban close, it was already swarming with reporters and wide-eyed neighbours standing at the police tape. They hadn’t been given any details, which never boded well, but they had been told to be prepared. After everything they had seen it seemed almost silly; but as hard as Nikki tried to be scientific about her job every now and again it really got to her. She had a bad feeling about this.

As they reached the tape, they both flashed their IDs to the waiting police officer.

“Home Office pathologists,” Leo said automatically.

The tape was lifted for them.

“Harry’s here,” Nikki said, nodding to his car.

“They phoned back whilst you were getting changed, asked for you as well.” Leo lifted his ID again as they reached the front door.

Nikki stopped at the doorstep and looked behind her, taking in the looks of horror on the colour drained faces of not only the spectators, but also the police. She noticed blood on the path.

“Leo.” When he turned, she nodded to the blood. “Paramedics?”

“They apologised for compromising the scene, but said they had to check for life, no matter how unlikely it looked.” The police officer at the door wore a senior uniform. He pulled two bags of protective clothing from his bag. “You’ll want to put these on before you go inside.”

Nodding, they took the bags and retreated back up the path to the shelter of the tent that was being used as a pop-up lab.

“Harry must already be inside,” Leo observed.

“They must have called him directly,” Nikki said, pulling on the bale blue suit. “I don’t envy him being the first pathologist on the scene. Did you see the look on the police officer’s face? And it’s not as if he’s a junior officer.”

“It doesn’t look good,” Leo agreed. “Are you ready?”

She nodded gravely.

The first thing they saw when they entered the house was blood. There was blood on the floor, blood on the walls, blood everywhere. Flashes from cameras lit up the dark hall for brief seconds of horror.

“I don’t even know where to step,” Nikki said, lifting her shoulders as a cold shiver ran through her. “There’s nowhere that isn’t...”

Leo walked forward, making the decision for her.

First on the left was the playroom; it was mercifully clean. The next door was guarded by a second police officer, who checked their IDs again. It had once been a living room, that much was evident from the sofas and the smashed TV in the corner. Modern wouldn’t have been the word that Nikki used to describe the room, there was a certain frozen in time look about it, as if the 90s hadn’t quite been replaced by the new millennium yet.

“Four,” Leo observed, his eyes flicking from one body to another.

“Almost the whole family,” Harry said. He was kneeling in front of a middle-aged man whose injuries displayed more of the bone than any of them had seen before; not without any decomposition. “The two youngest children were at school, they’re with the grandparent’s now.”

“Three weeks later and it would have been the Christmas holidays,” Nikki said distantly.

Leo squeezed her arm and made his way to the bodies of two teenagers at the far end of the room; one boy, one girl. They were clinging to each other.

“Gunshots,” Leo said.

Nikki let go of a breath that she hadn’t known she’s been holding.

“It seems that most of the rage was focused on the man,” Harry said.

“And it was certainly a lot of rage,” Nikki said, pushing thoughts of the lives of these people out of her head. “Have you looked at the mother yet?”

“Not properly,” Harry said, smiling apologetically.

“Any idea why they wanted all three of us?” Leo asked. It wasn’t unusual for two of them to be requested for multiple bodies, but the three of them had never been called for something as small as this, no matter how disturbing the scene.

Harry nodded towards the man. “He was big in the American pharmaceutical industry. His company is practically keeping the Ohio economy afloat. It seems our friends across the pond want this done properly.”

“Because we usually just guess at cause of death,” Nikki said, a little sharply.

“And we just pick anyone off the street and throw them in the cells.” A detective entered the room. “His brother’s high up in the Republican party.”

“And I didn’t think it could get any worse,” Leo said.

It turned out that it could get worse: quite a lot worse, actually.


	7. Chapter 7

Silence hung heavy; pressure crushing harder with every passing second. It felt like they were too far underwater, looking up at the real world distorted by rippling waves too high above them to move the heavy static water around them. They both wanted to reach the surface, to breathe the fresh air again, but feared the pain that would come from surfacing too fast. Nikki couldn’t stand it any longer.

“Just so you know, this is against my better judgement,” Nikki said, going for and almost achieving humour. “I would have gone with Leo if he was going even remotely my way.”

They had been sat, Harry and her, in his car for almost five minutes, trying to forget the sights and smells of the crime scene. It wasn’t the worst they had seen, but it still flared behind their eyelids with every blink. One of the hardest things about their jobs was trying not to imagine the events that had occurred directly before their jobs began. Though of course that was part of their jobs, the part they all resented just a tiny bit.

“I thought you had deemed my driving – what was it you said?” Harry turned to her, resting his head against the headrest. He looked calm and grounded, giving Nikki the urge to reach out and touch him, hoping he could tether her too.

“Acceptable for short journeys during daylight.” She could feel the waves now, flowing over her, at the same time hot and cold; so close to breaking out into the calm sea air.

“That was it.” He smiled, making all her unrest melt away. Cool air filled her lungs, it was like breathing for the first time. “And since this is both...” Harry continued. “You off home then?”

“Thankfully,” she sighed, smiling back at him. Now she could feel the crisp night air pricking against her cheeks. She was on the beach, clear of the water completely, though still dripping on the sand. “I think a good book and a glass of wine should do it.” They both knew what she meant, to distract, to forget.

“By which you mean rubbish telly and probably more than one glass of wine,” Harry said, turning the key and starting the engine. They would leave everything behind in this unfortunate street. Leave it for the prying neighbours and the police tape.

Taking one last look out the window at the ordinary looking house, disappearing around a corner, she took another deep breath and turned her attention to the bustling lights of the city at night. “You know me so well.”

~*~

Delicate flakes of snow drifted slowly downwards, flickering pretty in the yellow beams of the streetlights and the pale light of the moon. An unnaturally large proportion of it fell deliberately onto Morgana’s exposed skin, leaving behind cold wet raindrops that ran down her fingers and dripped to the floor. It was all very well and good on Christmas cards or out your window when you were safe inside with nowhere to go and warm arms around you, but being out in snow never quite lived up to the magic. Especially if you’ve been waiting on a doorstep for over five minutes, pointlessly pressing the cheery bell – which had already had a Christmas makeover – again and again.

The door opened and closed quickly, leaving Morgana wide eyed and bewildered. It was bloody freezing and if Arthur didn’t stop playing silly buggers then she was going to have to go above his head and get Gwen involved. Then he’d be sorry.

“Not today thank you.” Arthur’s voice came muffled through the door and his laughter both.

“Arthur,” Morgana said sternly, in the tone that she had inherited from their mother. She hadn’t inherited much, not her looks – for her mother was fair like Arthur – or her temperament, but she had gotten the ability to make Arthur stand to attention like a four year old caught with his hand in the biscuit tin before dinner. Her mother had always said how like her father she was, all dark and fiery with a penchant for politics and social justice, even in her early teens.

Arthur quickly opened the door, holding his hands up in surrender. “Only joking. You didn’t have to do the voice.” He was grinning broadly.

She thanked God for Gwen and her effect on him. Without her, he would be taking all of this so much harder. In fact, she couldn’t believe how well he  _was_  doing. If it had been her father, she’d be in bits... not that she remembered her father... maybe she’d be like Arthur was now if she had Gwen and the baby to take up her attentions. She had a feeling that Arthur was doing exactly the same thing she had done when their mother died: throwing himself into looking after other people, people who had the decency to stay alive.

“You  _will_ have to grow up when then the baby is born,” Morgana said, stepping into the house and brushing the snow from her shoulders. It fell artfully out the open door in a way that was far too graceful to be deliberate.

“That’s what Gwen’s for. And you.” He was still unnaturally happy. She raised an eyebrow at him. “You can do the voice; the baby will have no chance.”

“Have you been tricked into taking LSD again?” Morgana shrugged off her coat, jumping when a bit of snow fell onto the back of her neck.

He shushed her loudly. “Shh! I was seventeen! Gwen doesn’t know about that!” he hissed bringing his finger to his mouth.

Morgana laughed. “ _Yes_ she does.”

His mouth fell open in horror. “Morgana!”

“Oh hush, she was there when you phoned to inform me there was a purple tiger trying to eat your coursework.” There was a glint of nostalgia in her eye.

“It’s true, I was,” Gwen said, coming into the hall, bringing with her the sweet smell of Indian food and sandalwood skin oil. “It was pretty funny actually. It took Morgana almost half an hour to convince you not to call the RSPCA.” She smiled warmly at Morgana, giving her a hug and kiss on the cheek. “Even longer to get you to come out of the wardrobe.”

“Sometimes I feel like the two of you and ganging up on me,” Arthur muttered, taking Morgana’s coat and going to the cloak cupboard with it.

“Not nearly as much as the two of you  _actually_  gang up on me,” Gwen said, taking the coat from Arthur just as he was about to hang it up. She looked back at Morgana whose expression said very clearly that she was not taking a side in their playful argument. “Do you want me to put it on the radiator?”

Gwen had won her loyalty. “Any way I could go on the radiator too? I’m frozen.” She shivered theatrically and rubbed her hands together to emphasise her point.

“Didn’t you come in the car?” Gwen asked, reaching out to touch Morgana’s arm. Concern etched in her face. “You really are cold.”

“Arthur decided to play a little game,” Morgana said. “And since it had already taken him five minutes to come to the door...”

Arthur’s mouth hung open. He mouthed ‘traitor’ over Gwen’s shoulder.

Gwen just laughed, took off her cardigan and wrapped it around Morgana’s shoulders.

Dinner was blissfully uneventful. Too much had happened in the last two weeks, it was nice to do something normal. They talked about anything and everything that wasn’t to do with Uther. It seemed like an age had passed since they’d done this, just the three of them. Morgana couldn’t bring herself to interrupt the high atmosphere to bring Nikki, and inevitably Uther, into the conversation. Luckily, Arthur beat her to it.

Gwen had just finished bringing in dessert – shop bought so that Morgana could criticise it, just like the takeaway – when Arthur brought the conversation around to the investigation.

“I’m thinking about making a complaint about that detective,” he announced, once Gwen had sat down. “He was rude, when he came over earlier.” He was mincing his words for Gwen’s sake. His actual feelings included quite a few more expletives. “The way he talked to Gwen...”

“I have a feeling that might be my fault,” Morgana admitted, taking a sip of the expensive red wine she had given Gwen as part of her birthday present the month before.

“Nonsense,” Gwen admonished, her own wine glass resting comfortably in her hand.

“There may have been a comment about donuts...” Another sip. Glasses were good to hide behind.

Arthur laughed. “I wish I’d thought of that one. He does look like he belongs in the Simpsons, doesn’t he? I would have punched him if it hadn’t been for that pathologist giving me apologetic looks; poor bloke.”

“Speaking of pathologists,” Gwen said, coughing, none too subtly, and looking at Morgana pointedly.

Morgana gave her a look (also inherited from her mother). Her allegiance shifted back to her brother.

“Arthur, there’s – err – there’s something I need to tell you,” she said tentatively.

He nodded for her to continue, his gaze steady and serious. Starting a conversation off the way Morgana just had, never ended well, especially when it was Morgana. She had started many a conversation like that around the dinner table when he was a child. It usually ended in his father breaking something and Morgana storming out.

“Do you remember the other pathologist, the one who was with the detective first?”

Arthur nodded. “Blonde?”

She nodded. “Well, I’ve – err – I’ve been sort of seeing her. It started after this all began.” She had never once felt nervous of telling Arthur something before. He had always been her little brother and, when it came down to it, she had always been in charge. But they were older now and she could no longer threaten to put his action man through the blender. “But I’ve broken it off, until all this is over. It has nothing to do with the case, Arthur, I promise you. I just – I really, really like her.”

He exhaled heavily. “Christ Morgana, for a minute there I thought you were going to tell me...” He gestured vaguely. There were a hundred and one things that he’d worried she was going to say, something about the baby, about Gwen, about his father or the company. He felt a stab of guilt for his second of doubt. He trusted her implicitly… usually.

“She could lose her job; the case could suffer.” She wanted to make sure that he understood the risks before he gave her his blessing.

“You know I’m behind you,” Arthur confirmed, reaching across the table to squeeze her hand. There was something of their mother in his kind eyes. “So, come on, let’s have the details.”

Morgana smiled, her shoulders falling as her tension evaporated. “She’s called Nikki.”

“And let me guess, you bonded over some boring sciencey stuff?” Arthur chuckled.

Morgana frowned.

~*~

“Here you go.” Harry pulled the car to a gentle stop.  Snow had begun to fall. “Home sweet home.”

“I don’t suppose you fancy coming in?” Nikki asked, a flicker of vulnerability in her eyes.

Of course he did, he had been almost praying she would ask him in.

Before Harry could answer, a computerised version of the A-Team theme filled the car. He apologised, reaching for the phone, clicking ‘accept’ and putting it to his ear. “Dr. Cunningham.” A pause. He sighed. “Hang on a second.” He mouthed ‘Anderson’ and pointed to the glove compartment and mimed for a pen. Once Nikki had found it and the back of an expired tax disk to write on, she gave him a nod. “Go on. Yep. So that’s... 23 Woodbank Rd... Putney... Just hang on a second.” He put the phone to his coat.

Nikki had paled.

“What’s wrong?” He whispered.

“What’s going on?” She asked, neither hearing nor acknowledging his question.

“Someone called the police about a disturbance at a house, it must be something to do with the Pendragon case,” Harry offered. “Sorry, about not coming in.”

“No...” she shook her head distractedly. “That’s – err – that’s Morgana’s house.”

Harry put the phone back to his ear. “I’m with Dr. Alexander.” He paused and then nodded. “Yes, I can bring her with me.” He ended the call, glanced at Nikki’s worried face and pressed his foot down on the accelerator.

~*~

Morgana’s cheeks were burning. She didn’t like being quizzed on her love life, especially not by Arthur and Gwen. “Oh, shut up!”

“And she cooked her dinner,” Gwen said to Arthur, throwing an impish smile at Morgana. She was sat sideways in the only armchair, her legs dangling over the high arm. Absently, she played with one of her dark blue heels, letting it hang off her toes until it lost balance and toppled to join the other one on the floor.

“Shut up!”

“Oh Morgana, next you’re going to tell me that you baked.” Arthur was leaning back on the sofa laughing so hard he was close to falling off. “This is priceless.”

Morgana hung her head, running her hand through her hair. She sat cross-legged on the rug, her back to the almost too hot fire. They had retired to the living room over an hour ago and they were still making fun of her. “I was going to bake anyway, she just happened to eat it.”

“And that’s not the best part. Nikki ran out on her and took the pudding with her!” Gwen was bent over with laugher.

“You’re such a traitor,” Morgana accused, her eyes wide and her mouth open as she looked pleadingly for Gwen to stop. At that moment, she was very, very glad that she hadn’t told Gwen about the note. “I am never confiding in you again. I don’t know what you two are complaining about, my best friend and my little brother got married, that’s the ultimate in ganging up on me. I’m never going to win!”

“Aww, diddums.” Arthur reached down and patted her shoulder patronisingly.

Morgana seriously considered bringing up one of the many things that she had done with his wife, and the diverse places they had done them: cars, planes, lecture theatres and, most memorably, the Christmas tree department of a garden centre. She was pretty certain she’d beat him, easily. Luckily, the phone rang. Gwen picked it up.

“Hello? Oh, hi Mrs McIntyre... Yeah, yeah she’s here. Is there something wrong?” There was a pause as Gwen’s expression grew increasingly worried. “Yes of course, we’ll leave now.” She thanked the elderly lady, said goodbye and ended the call.

Arthur sat up straight. “What’s wrong?”

“That was Morgana’s next door neighbour. There’s been a fire and she said there are police everywhere.”

Morgana sat frozen to the spot, blinking slowly as Arthur and Gwen hurried around her. Only when Arthur handed offered her a hand up, her coat draped over his arm, did she finally move. Maybe she wasn’t paranoid after all.

~*~

Nikki gasped when she saw the fire engine on Morgana’s street. There was no smoke, which had to be a good thing. But there were three police cars and tape was already cordoning off the old Victorian house. It looked far too like the scene they had just left.

“What did Anderson say?” She asked for the fifth time. Her voice was shaking,

“Nothing, just that there had been an incident and that he needed me in case there was any trace evidence. They’ve been inside, there was nobody in there.” He was patient. What Anderson had actually said involved blood, but Nikki didn’t need to hear that.

Her hand closed around his arm. “Harry...”

“Do you want to stay in the car?”

She shook her head quickly. “No, I – I, err – no. I’m coming in.”

“She isn’t in there,” he repeated.

Nikki swallowed, her hand subconsciously tightening on his arm. “I’m not sure that makes it better.”


	8. Chapter 8

Every sound echoed. Every movement was slow and jerky. Thin grey smoke floated out of the upstairs windows and the open front door, curling upwards towards the snow-filled sky like smoke from the chimney of a child’s painting. No flicker of flames could be seen and the fire fighters were winding their hoses back in, not feeding them out. Whatever fire had burned inside the centuries old house had been quenched. The ambulance was driving slowly away, it’s flashing lights lightless and its screeching siren dumb. Curious neighbours were starting to disperse. The show was over.

In Nikki Alexander’s experience, that only ever meant one of two things.

“Dr. Cunningham. Dr. Alexander.” Anderson was waiting for them at the black-iron gate, his sooty shoes dirtying the otherwise pristine black and white tiled path. “We’ve just had the all clear from the fire fighters, there’s nobody inside. There’s a bit of blood in the hall, though, near to the point of origin. It looks like whoever did this didn’t make it out of the hall, the doors to the rest of the downstairs and the upper level went into lockdown at the intruder alert. The police were alerted when the alarm went off, the firemen a couple of minutes later when the smoke alarm went through to their switchboard. It’s a nice security system; we were both here within 10 minutes.”

“What about Morgana?” Harry asked.

Anderson shook his head. “We’ve phoned her brother but there’s no answer. We don’t have her mobile on file.”

“That’s a bit of cock-up,” Harry said, saying something before Nikki could. “Surely in a case like this you should have taken all of their communication details.”

“There was no reason to believe that the family were at risk and we still don’t know that this is even related.” He was defensive. “It could just be kids.”

Harry sighed sharply and turned away from the house. “We need to get the sample retrieval kits from the car.”

“Of course.” Anderson nodded.

“Come on,” Harry murmured, pulling Nikki with him. “You can phone her when we get to the car. You don’t want him knowing you’ve got her number.”

Nikki allowed herself to be led back to the car, her mind on Morgana and whatever lay inside the burnt front door. As soon as the boot was up, and they were hidden from view, Harry leant against the car and nodded to her expectantly. He was tapping his foot and playing with the buttons of his shirt cuffs, all the while looking at her with a guarded urgency. She felt a rush of affection for him when she realised that he was almost as nervous as she was.

Despite its time spent in the inside pocket of her jacket, her phone felt cold and heavy in her hand as she scrolled through her phone book and touched the green phone beside Morgana’s name. It rung out only three times before it was answered. Nikki took a deep breath.

“Nikki?” It was Morgana, shaken up and not quite clear, but definitely Morgana.

Nikki released her breath in a relieved sigh. “Morgana, thank God. Harry and I were called to your house. Are you okay? Where are you?”

“About two minutes away. I’m fine. I was at Arthur’s, they’re with me now. What happened? Why were you called?” It was the first time Nikki had heard Morgana sound genuinely scared.*

“We haven’t been inside yet, but apparently there’s blood. I don’t know how much.” Harry gave her a look; she knew she shouldn’t have said it. “There was a fire, but it’s out now.”

“I know,” Morgana said. “One of my neighbours called Arthur’s. How bad does it look?”

“The fire engine just left...You can’t let them know that you know anything, if they knew that I told you then...” Nikki held her breath as she waited for Morgana’s answer.

“No, of course. Are  _you_ okay? You sound...”

“Yeah, fine. I just... I was scared, I thought you were... I don’t even know what I thought.”

A dark, expensive car came around the corner and pulled to a stop just behind Harry’s, the headlights illuminating Nikki and Harry brightly.

“This is me,” Morgana said. “Are we...”

“Just about far enough away for a minute or two, maybe, before they come looking for me and Harry. We can say we met you here.” Nikki didn’t like how easy she found it to lie about this whole thing to the authorities.

“You did,” Morgana reminded her softly, ending the call as she opened the car door and walked around the front of the car, closely followed by Arthur and Gwen. “Come here.” She hugged Nikki briefly but tightly, pressing a kiss to Nikki’s cheek. “You were really that worried about me?”

Nikki laughed, her skin tingling from Morgana’s kiss. “Surprisingly, very.”

They held each other’s gaze, smiling slightly, not daring to look away.

“I know we’ve met, but not properly. I’m Gwen.” Gwen held her hand out to Nikki, who shook it gratefully, breaking her gaze with Morgana.

“And I’m Arthur. I’ll be the one threatening you if you hurt her,” Arthur said with a friendly smile.

“And I’ll be the one taking you on,” Harry said, equally friendly, shaking Arthur’s hand.

Morgana caught Nikki’s attention – which wasn’t very hard – and nodded her head in her brother’s direction, rolling her eyes.

Nikki smiled. Begrudgingly, she said, “We should get back to the house.”

“Here we go,” Morgana said, shoving her hands into her pockets and giving Nikki a wink before striding off towards the police cordon around her house.

~*~

Morgana and her family were taken to the station to give statements and await word from Anderson as to their safety with regards to however had started the fire.

The majority of the damage was localised to the hall and stairs. There was blood on the fire tarnished walls and carpet, not a lot but enough to catch the attention of the police officers and certainly enough for a DNA sample. Splatter pattern pointed away from direct bleeding. Harry suggested it had been purposely put there. Nikki was inclined to agree.

“We’ll have to send it away for analysis,” Harry said, screwing the sample into its tube. “It’ll be a week at least.”

“Unless you fork out for the 24 hour service.” Nikki looked up at him, crouched next the reddish-brown stain on the carpet.

Anderson sighed, rubbing his eye. “Is it your professional opinion that this sample requires special treatment?”

Nikki didn’t say a thing, instead turning to Harry.

“Yes,” Harry said firmly. “Until we get the results back, we cannot tell you if this is related to Uther Pendragon’s death.”

“And if the results come back inconclusive?”

“We can’t rule out a connection, forensically, but it could tell us if they are connected.” Harry stood up, taking a pen out of his kit to label the tube. “What’s going to happen with the rest of the family?”

Nikki stood up, taking off her gloves and tightening the bun her hair was in.

“They’ll be staying together and there will be a squad car outside the house,” Anderson said.

“So you really think this is connected?” Nikki asked.

“It’d be a pretty big coincidence if it wasn’t.”

~*~

Despite the patrol car parked below her window, Morgana couldn’t sleep. She lay awake under the stifling weight of the quilt, shifting every few minutes to find somewhere cool where the bed sheets wouldn’t stick to her skin. It was almost the height of winter, but inside the red and white patterned walls of her room she felt as though it was mid-June. As the clock ticked towards three am, she slipped down into the kitchen and sat on one of the polished light-oak chairs with her knees pulled up to her chin, her arms wrapped loosely around her legs. She had unlatched and opened the window above the sink, letting in a welcomingly cool breeze that blew the hem of the long nightgown she was wearing. The police had refused to let her back into her house to get anything, so she was wearing a rejected present that Gwen had been given by her grandmother a few Christmases ago. It had lain in the bottom of a draw in the flat the Morgana and Gwen had once shared and had been transferred to the bottom of the box-room wardrobe when she had moved in with Arthur.

“You look like something out of Victorian novel.” Gwen was stood in the doorway, her loose hair moving in the breeze.

“Blame that on your grandmother’s fashion sense,” Morgana said, moving from resting her chin on her knees to resting her cheek on them instead so she could look at Gwen. Now she knew about the baby, Morgana could see the slight curve of Gwen’s abdomen under her clingy strappy pyjama top. She smiled slightly at the sight. “Sorry, did I wake you?”

Gwen shook her head, moving into the room. “No, I couldn’t sleep either. I didn’t want to wake Arthur up. I went to your room but it was empty... so I came down here.” She moved a chair next to Morgana’s. When she sat down, Morgana let her legs fall to the floor and leant her head on Gwen’s shoulder. “Do you want a glass of wine?”

Morgana shook her head.

“Coffee?”

Another shake.

“I remember last time I found you in the kitchen in the middle of the night,” Gwen said softly. “It was the night before you were going to get your dissertation mark. You didn’t say a word, just lent on me like you are now and I held you until you fell asleep. I could tell when you had drifted off because you had finally stopped shaking. You got 89, you shouldn’t have worried at all.”

“I’d failed one of my units. I needed to get a first on my dissertation.” Morgana’s voice was quiet.

“You got a first class degree. You always worried way too much about university. I swear you put in twice the effort of everyone else, and that was on top of the activism,” Gwen pointed out. “And everything will turn out fine this time too. I’m not letting you go home until whoever started the fire and whoever killed Uther are behind bars, whether they’re the same person or not; even if it takes forever. But it won’t be, not with that pathologist girlfriend of yours on the case.”

Morgana laughed and snuggled into Gwen. “She’s not my girlfriend.”

“Not yet,” Gwen teased, nudging Morgana. “I mean it though, you can’t go home. I won’t let you.”

“Well, I’ll just have to make sure that Nikki solves the case before the baby’s due.” Morgana was smiling.

“I don’t think she’ll be getting much help from that detective,” Gwen said, resting her head atop Morgana’s. “Plus, Arthur’s a heavy sleeper. At least you’d wake up when the baby cried.”

~*~

Nikki was more than tired when she entered her office the next morning. She had spent most of the night thinking about Morgana and the fire. If there was something connecting the murder and the fire, then this was definitely more serious than any of them had thought. It had seemed like such a straight forward case at first. A simple murder – if any murder could be called simple. The method was slightly more sophisticated than usual but with the amount of forensics on the television and the entire universe a Google search away these days, branching out was nothing new. Then of course she had met Morgana in the bar and what was originally nothing more than a spark of interest turned into something much more.

“Hard night?” Harry enquired gently, nudging aside reports to place a steaming cup of tea on her desk. “I can’t say mine was much better. I got a not so courteous call from one of my neighbours after I got a four am compulsion to test all of my smoke alarms.”

“Why do we always end up with these cases?” Nikki slumped down in her chair, hiding her face in her hands. The migraine that had tormented her all night was kicking up a gear.

“Fortuitousness?” Harry suggested. “But I think the more important question is: When did our – by which I mean your – personal life start getting as complicated as the people’s whose last minutes we spend our days reconstructing? Not that my history in the last year has been any better.” There was a distinct hint of amusement in his voice.

“I know exactly when. It was the moment you abandoned me in that bar.” Nikki’s voice was whiney.

Harry perched on the edge of her desk. “Abandoned is a strong word.” He nudged her chair with his foot and winked at her when she looked up. “I phoned the lab. They said they should have the results of the DNA test by about three.”

“Thanks,” she smiled.

“Come on you two,” Leo called from the doorway. “These autopsies won’t do themselves, and there’s an American diplomat here to observe, so I want you on your best behaviour. Let’s show the Yanks what British forensic service can do, put their glossy prime time TV shows to shame.”

Harry saluted. “Yes sir.”

Mindful of what was ahead of them, they all laughed.

~*~

The autopsies of the of the American man and his family took all day, even between the three of them, and it was well after three that afternoon when Nikki got around to looking at the results of the DNA test from Morgana’s house. The lab had sent the results by fax over an hour before, along with the results of the cross-matching on the DNA from Uther Pendragon’s body. The first lot of results shot ice through Nikki’s heart, the second near stopped it.

Sample no. XT43789, the blood found in Morgana’s house, came back with a match from the database: Darren Graham, the murdered American Harry had spent the morning working on.

“Harry, Leo!” she called.

“Is that the results from the step-daughter’s house on the Pendragon case?” Leo asked, reading the results over her shoulder. “Bloody hell.”

“What?” Harry asked almost skipping over, to look over Nikki’s other shoulder. “Oh,  _bloody hell_.”

Handing the results to Leo who went to sit down at the table, Nikki focused on the other results. Her breath was instantly taken away. “Err, Harry."

He didn’t have to ask, he had seen it instantly as well. “Oh Nikki, I’m so sorry.”

The DNA from Uther’s body had also come back with a match, sample no.ML586094, the sample from Morgana.

 


	9. Chapter 9

  
“There must be a mistake.” It was the only explanation, the  _only_   _possible_  explanation. The samples must have been mixed up or contaminated or... It wasn’t possible. Morgana couldn’t have done it. She just couldn’t.

“Just because her DNA was on the body doesn’t mean that she did it,” Harry whispered fiercely, his defence of Morgana as much a defence of Nikki. “She’s his step daughter. They work together. There’s every reason for her DNA to be there.”

“The sample was taken from under his fingernails,” Leo said, walking over and taking the report from Nikki. “Not that it automatically means she did it. What does it matter to you, Harry, if she did it or not? We’re impartial, we look at the facts.”

“It matters because she didn’t do it.” Harry bit out.

“You don’t know that.” Leo countered. “Oh Harry, please tell me there’s nothing going on between you and her.”

“I don’t have to be sleeping with her to know that she didn’t do it!” Harry was starting to get annoyed now. “You haven’t even met the woman. How can you pass judgement on her when you haven’t even laid eyes on her?”

“Did you learn nothing from the mess with Rebecca Connelly?” Leo’s frustration and worry for Harry flared his anger. Sometimes he felt like he was parenting the two younger pathologists; like they were children that needed his constant supervision to prevent them wandering away after whoever dangled a sweet in front of them.

“Stop it!” Nikki shouted. “Both of you!”

“Nikki.” Harry put a hand on her arm, warning.

 “It isn’t Harry,” Nikki said quietly but determinedly, looking up at Leo. “It’s me.”

“What isn’t Harry?” Leo asked. “Nikki, Harry, what is going on here?”

They exchanged a glance. Harry silently pleading with Nikki to keep quiet –  _‘you don’t have to do this’_  – Nikki wordlessly saying that she did, that she couldn’t let Harry take the fall for her mistake.

“You’re right. One of us is involved with Morgana, but it isn’t Harry. Harry isn’t sleeping with her,” Nikki said, barely able to breathe for fear. “I am – I did. I’m not anymore. It was just once and I took myself off the case straight away. Harry has handled all of the evidence; my name is on nothing but the preliminary autopsy and that was before I’d even met her properly never mind...” She shook her head, clearing her thoughts into a rational argument. “He was present at the original autopsy and has since done another examination and completely concurs with my findings. Leo, it was one night! And she hasn’t asked me a single thing about the case, quite the opposite. After one night we finished things – not that they had even started really – until after all of this is over. I know I’ve been stupid, I know I could be throwing my career away and frankly that terrifies me. But I’ve done nothing wrong and I know that she didn’t do it. If I have to quit my job to get you to prove that then-”

“Enough,” Leo cut her off his voice weary. “I’m putting you on suspension until the case is over, at which point I will review the situation.” He shook his head, not looking at her. “I am very disappointed in you Nikki.”

“Fine,” Nikki sighed sharply and stalked from the room. “If she’s guilty then I resign!”

The double doors clashed loudly behind her, the sheer momentum of her push swinging them open and closed again and again.

~*~

It took all of Nikki’s self control to not press her foot down harder on the accelerator. It was such a strong impulse. She had always been a careful driver but then again she had always been careful in her career too. Never before had she come close to crossing that line. The line that she knew full well she had crossed the moment she agreed to have a drink with Morgana. She had gotten emotionally involved in cases before, they all did, but this was different: this could cost her job. Reckless as she had become with her career, she did not intend to extend that recklessness in her life. So, when her phone chimed with the unmistakable sound of Harry’s personal she pulled over.

She let out a deep breath and forced herself to answer civilly. “Hello Harry.”

“Where are you?”

“Pulled over by the side of the road, about five minutes from St. Pancreas.”

“Right,” Harry asserted in that voice he often used to suggest he was far superior to whomever he was speaking to. “I’m coming to get you.”

“I can still drive,” Nikki sighed. “A good deal better than you do too.”

“Leo overreacted.” Harry said, apparently giving up on coming to get her. It was probably the tone of her voice; she made an extra effort to sound placid. None of this was Harry’s fault.

“No he didn’t,” Nikki admitted. “He was right, I’ve been stupid.”

“Not stupid just...” He couldn’t think of another word for it, but he was hardly in a position to judge her. And he really didn’t think that she had been stupid, just maybe a little naïve. “Are you going to go and see her?”

“And completely throw my career away? No thank you.” Her voice held an edge of bitterness again.

“She didn’t do it,” Harry said.

“No, she didn’t, but you can’t know that. Not just  _know_  it, not like I do. Please don’t get involved, I don’t want you suspended as well.”

“No, couldn’t possibly.” His light tone almost made her smile. “Not even Leo is self-righteous enough to leave himself as the only pathologist. Janet would have his head,” Harry joked. “Just go home and lay low for a week or so. I’ll be over later, after work.”

She smiled at the thought. It was so reassuringly familiar. They would drink enough to have them laughing but not quite enough to make them regret it the next morning. Arguments would rise over whose iPod would be plugged into the speakers or who got control of the TV remote.  “That sounds good.” She took another long deep breath. “Thank you, for everything. I think sometimes that I’d go crazy without you.”

“Well, not crazy, I wouldn’t say. Maybe slightly mentally disturbed...”

“Harry!” Nikki protested, laughing. “I mean it though, thank you.”

“No trouble. Just trying to soften the blow of what’s about to happen in about-” There was a pause for dramatic effect as he pretended to check his watch. “Half an hour.”

“Fine, I’ll bite. What’s about to happen in half an hour?”

“Anderson’s going to arrest Morgana,” Harry said.

Nikki exhaled heavily and let her head fall forward onto the steering wheel. She had almost forgotten about that.

“Nikki? You still there?”

“I’m here,” she said evenly. “Just about.”

~*~

Sleep had eventually come for Morgana that night but it wasn’t to be in the slightly lumpy bed of the spare room or in the cool sanctuary of the kitchen. Gwen hadn’t exactly been desperate to sit on a hard wooden chair all night and Morgana wasn’t really in the mood to argue when she had been led wearily into the living room in the early hours. She found sleep with the sound of an old black and white film featuring Lana Turner in the background, her head pillowed in Gwen’s lap and gentle fingers running soothingly through her hair. Being so close to Gwen, wearing Arthur’s university sweatshirt, she could feel her troubles slipping away.

When she woke the next morning it was to the smell of strong coffee and a gruff, “good morning, Morgana, or, more accurately, good afternoon,” from her brother.

“Leave her be.” It was Gwen. “She’s only been asleep a few hours and it’s not like either of you have been going to work. Come, sit down and bring the remote with you. I haven’t been able to reach it since it fell of the arm of the sofa two hours ago. I’ve been watching people who are supposedly designers buying other people housewarming gifts for houses they’ve lived in for years for over an hour. It’s apparently some kind of competition.”

“Couldn’t you just have woken her up?” Arthur asked. Morgana felt Gwen shift slightly as she was handed the remote and the sound of the obnoxious ITV presenters melted into the soft tones of a theatre director enthusing about his latest play. They had definitely switched.

With her eyes closed, Morgana could almost feel the look passing between her brother and his wife. He thought that Gwen was too soft on Morgana and she thought that Arthur was just as soft. It sometimes made Morgana feel like a bit of a charity case, not that she would ever let them know that.

“I was worried, when I woke up and you were gone,” Arthur said lightly.

Feeling the tension begin to rise, Morgana gave up her act of sleep. “I should get out of your way,” she murmured, pushing up off Gwen sleepily.

“Morgana, I didn’t know you were awake,” Arthur apologised.

“And you aren’t in the way,” Gwen said, rubbing her arm. “You’re family.”

Morgana yawned and rubbed at her eyes. She took the steaming cup of coffee that Arthur was holding out to her and smiled graciously.

“I’m sorry for monopolising Gwen last night. I was having a... What was it you called it Gwen?” She folded her legs underneath her.

“She looked like something from a Victorian novel, sitting there alone in the deserted kitchen in my Gran’s nightgown and the wind howling in the window.”

“Yeah, I was going to say I was having a Jane Austen moment, though it was probably closer to Dickens.”

Arthur laughed. “You always did have a dramatic streak.”

“Someone did just try and burn me alive!” Morgana protested, laughing along with her brother.

“Which isn’t a laughing matter,” Gwen said sternly, looking between Morgana and Arthur.

“I think we’re being told off,” Arthur whispered to Morgana conspiratorially. “At least I’m dressed, the two of you are still in your pyjamas and it’s almost starting to get dark again.”

A sharp knock on the door jolted the three of them out of their light banter.

“I’ll go,” Arthur said.

~*~

The day went slowly for Nikki, sitting in front of the television trying not to pay attention to what the awful people who made their money in daytime telly were saying. Luckily she had missed the morning shows and instead of warring couples in velour tracksuits she was watching greedy people being told that their “antiques” were worth approximately the same amount as the petrol home. By the time it was getting dark she had settled on a cooking channel. Though she couldn’t even think about eating, not with the low sick feeling from her constant thoughts of Morgana. If Nikki herself was terrified, she couldn’t imagine how Morgana or her family must feel.

There was a knock on her door.

~*~

The prison cell wasn’t as romantic as Morgana remembered it. There were no strategically left marker pens. The walls were spotless and smelled vaguely of disinfectant. The cot was smaller and so was the window. In fact, it was more of an airbrick than a window and there weren’t any bars on it at all. She had remembered it colder as well, there definitely hadn’t been under-floor heating when she was last inside a cell. Maybe this was adult prison. Not adult in the porn version of prison kind of way, more like adult in the ‘now I have a mortgage and apparently a prison cell with under-floor heating’ kind of way.

Time was going very, very slowly.

She hadn’t been questioned yet, just arrested and left alone in a cell to sweat. Despite her incarceration she was feeling remarkably calm. It wasn’t that she wasn’t scared, she was, but it was nothing compared to how vulnerable she had felt. Everyone had dismissed it as paranoia when she had felt eyes tracking her in the dark but now there had been the fire. How could the police believe that she had killed her stepfather when it was obvious someone had it in for her? Nikki was a scientist, just like her and she would find the truth. As long as Nikki was behind her then she had nothing to worry about, right? In a fairytale, maybe.

This was real life, not a fairytale. She wasn’t the kind of woman who sat back and relied on someone else to save her anyway. She didn’t kill her stepfather. She wouldn’t, couldn’t kill anyone let alone him. Nothing about Uther had been likable, not for Morgana anyway, but she had loved him. Deep down, somewhere she had.

“How did I get here?” She wondered aloud. Everything in the last few weeks had come so quickly. First she had gained interest from an ex-professor who had seen the preliminary results of one of her trials. Then Uther had threatened to pull her project; Arthur had stepped in and saved her from that one. Before she knew it her entire world had come crashing down. Uther’s death had been like a knife to the heart but Nikki had made her breath quicken in a way that nobody had since Gwen. Gwen... Gwen was pregnant. She and Arthur were going to be a proper family and they would have no time for Morgana anymore. Then her house, her beautiful house... She thought of the photo of the Derry skyline that her father had taken, burnt, ruined. It was the only thing she had ever had of his that gave her any idea of what he had been like, how he had seen the world.

Her mother used to talk about him all the time when Morgana was little. She used to remark at how alike they were, how Morgana’s stubbornness was his, how their eyes were the same and her hair. He had left her a book of old tales filled with selkies and banshees. Her pockets had been full of breadcrumbs to protect her from fairies and she had been convinced that Arthur was a changeling, no human baby could ever smell  _that_ bad. The book had been lost though, when they moved to England and she hadn’t seen it since. She wondered what her father would think of her. Never once had she stopped to think about his approval, she had always had her mother’s and even Uther’s, even when she was spending all of her energy to garner his glares and disappointment.

Tears spilled down her cheeks, dropping down onto her shaking hand. How could he have died? He was the closest thing to a father she had ever known. When she was a child he had been the one to kiss her bruised knees after falling from her bike. He had been the one beaming as he videoed her First Holy Communion, and the one to teach her to drive. When she had come home late he had been the one to shout at her send her to her room. He had always been at parent’s night and certificate evenings. Even when she had thought she was grown up and independent, he had always been the one to pay bail, to get her out of trouble after a protest. She hadn’t thought anything of the photos of her up in his house or even really noticed the trophy on his mantelpiece she had one for getting the highest grades at GCSE in her entire year. For all of their differences and disagreements he had loved her and she had loved him, she just never realised it.

When her mother died she blamed Uther, blamed him for them leaving Ireland, for her being bullied at school because of her accent and the fact that her hand was always the first one up to answer a question. At university she had chosen to study the life sciences without a thought, never once thinking of her stepfather’s career and why she had chosen hers.

Now he was gone and there was nobody to get her out of trouble or kiss the bruise on arm from the grip of the policeman. She was all alone and scared and truly orphaned.


	10. Chapter 10

A week went by, then two. Nikki had taken just about as much of being sensible and lying low as she could. Every day was empty. Harry was helping as much as he could, spending nearly every free moment with her and being with him did give her some relief, a distraction. The problem was, he couldn’t spend every waking moment with her and as soon as he left, her thoughts drifted back to Morgana, all alone in a prison cell. She was trying so hard to stay away; she knew it was the right thing to do, her being around wasn’t going to help Morgana and it definitely wasn’t going to help her own career. There was an inescapable feeling low in her stomach that this was wrong, that Morgana was innocent and that there was far more to this than anyone could see. Someone had tried to frame Morgana – succeeded – but they had also tried to hurt her and it was that everyone seemed to have forgotten.

Nikki glanced down at her watch, rubbed her hands together to try to warm them up and looked expectantly to the dark pine.

The door opened. Silence.

Her entire vocabulary had become suddenly shrouded in a thick mist. “I...” Her mind reached desperately through the haze for something solid, a sentence or even just another word. “We – err – we met the night of the fire, I don’t know if you remember me but...”

Gwen nodded. “I remember.”

“I...” Again her mind went blank. “How is she?”

 “You’d better come in.”

Gwen and Arthur’s house couldn’t have been more different from Morgana’s. The walls were covered in photos, old black and white mixed with colour of varying qualities. She recognised younger versions of Morgana and Arthur in most, interspersed with childhood shots of Gwen and older photos with stone walls and rocky hills in the background.

“There are over a hundred up in the house, Arthur loves them, Morgana can’t stand the clutter,” Gwen said, following Nikki’s gaze to an early washed-out colour photo. “Their mother, Vivien,” she filled in.

In the picture, a young woman stood on a beach, no more than twenty-five. She wore a dark swimming costume, her jet black hair blowing wildly in the wind, a carefree smile on her face. If the faded pink-tinged colour and poor resolution of the photo hadn’t aged it, she would have sworn it was Morgana.

“Morgana and Arthur both maintain that Morgana takes after her father and that he takes after their mother, though neither has seen more than a couple of grainy photos of him. He was always the one behind the camera,” she brushed the light layer of dust from the glass, “not that I blame him. Vivien dyed her hair blonde just after her husband died so none of them remember her dark. She’s almost three months pregnant with Morgana there.” Gwen smiled distractedly.

Nikki felt like she was intruding on a moment she had no right to see. No matter how bad she felt, she couldn’t even begin to imagine how Morgana’s family was feeling. “Did you ever meet her?”

“No. There was only Uther by the time I met Morgana.” She looked to another photo, far newer. Nikki smiled when she recognised the backdrop.

“Robben Island.” She wanted to reach out and touch it. The water was bright blue and the grass in the foreground a brilliant green, Table Mountain rose dusky pink on the horizon. Smiling she said, “She looks so happy. The night she cooked me dinner, she told me about your trip to South Africa. She didn’t mention that you went there though, I don’t imagine it would be my first choice on a holiday.”

“She couldn’t bear it inside the prison, it was so claustrophobic. But she stayed through the whole tour, pretending not to be going out of her mind. All of those tiny cells and rusting chicken wire; it was stiflingly hot.” She laughed. “Morgana was so happy to be out in the fresh air again, she ran all the way to the beach and dived straight into the sea.”

“Sometimes I forget how beautiful it can look. I grew up in not far from there.” Feeling that she had engaged in enough small talk, she turned to Gwen. “I know I don’t have the right, but I  _need_  to know how she is.”

“Scared,” Gwen said simply. “She’s trying to hide it but I could tell she was crying on the phone. We haven’t been allowed to see her yet.”

“She didn’t do it,” Nikki said, her voice firm “I know she didn’t.”

“You don’t know her,” Gwen countered softly. “Not really. Morgana has a lot of faults; she can be very passionate about something she cares about.”

“And you think she could have done it?” The possibility hit her like icy fist, twisting in her gut.

“Of course not,” Gwen said fiercely. “She’s all bark and no bite. And despite what she might say, she loved Uther like a father. He  _was_  her father, maybe not genetically, but he was.”

Quick footsteps on the stairs made Nikki jump; she had thought they were alone.

“What’s she doing here?” Arthur was obviously not pleased to see her.

“Arthur,” Gwen pleaded, “Let’s just hear her out. Morgana would want her to be there, another friendly face.”

Nikki frowned, she was clearly missing something. “Want me to be where?”

“Morgana’s in court this afternoon,” Gwen supplied. “They’ve been trying to get out of the bail hearing for over a week, thrown up all the red tape they could.”

“We have the best lawyer money can buy, not that it’s made the blindest bit of difference.” Arthur was finishing tying his tie. Gwen batted his hands away and took over. It was only then that Nikki noticed they were both dressed in muted formal greys and backs.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know.” She blushed, feeling foolish. Why would she know? Why hadn’t Harry told her? Would he be there? Of course he would, expert witnesses were commonly called to appear at bail hearings.

“If you’ll excuse us,” Arthur said, his voice tight, “we have to leave.”

“You should come,” Gwen said, putting a hand on Arthur’s arm to quieten him. “Morgana would like to see you.”

“I...” Nikki didn’t know what to say. Harry would be so annoyed with her if she turned up.

“I shouldn’t have asked, we know how careful you have to be – with your job,” Gwen backtracked quickly.

“No, I want to come,” Nikki said just as quickly. “I want to see her.”

Arthur sighed. “Fine, but you’ll have to take your own car.”

~*~

For all the trouble she had gotten into when she was younger, Morgana had never been in a courtroom before. Most of the ones she had seen in films were American, large and airy with white stone, but this was barely the size of her lab and nowhere near as welcoming. Dark wood seemed to be universal decor for houses of law, furnishing the gallery, benches and every other surface, including the walls, bearing down on her like a  _Through the Looking Glass_  nightmare. It was the largest room she had been in since she had been arrested, though, and some of her tension eased despite the menacing appearance.

“What happens now?” she whispered to the guard at her side. He was nice; she couldn’t even bring herself to tease him about the fact that his wife starched his shirts to within an inch of their lives.

“Your representation will appeal to the judge for you to be given bail.” Their hands were cuffed together and the cold metal pulled on her wrist when he straightened his jacket.

 “I mean, what do  _you_  think will happen? You must have seen this hundreds of times.”

“You can never tell. It depends as much on whether the judge has had a good lunch as it does on how guilty you look.”

“How guilty do I look?” Morgana whispered. The gallery was starting to fill up and she was starting to feel claustrophobic again.

“Pretty guilty,” the guard admitted. His name was Devon and he was at least a couple of years younger than Morgana. The presence of his wedding ring unsettled her. Why did everyone else have their lives sorted out whilst she was still running around with her head in a fantasy novel? When had everyone else grown up? She had always expected that it would feel different, that she would suddenly know what to do for the best and how to behave, but she was just as lost as ever.

As she shifted uncomfortably, she caught Arthur’s eye as he entered the court. Her heart clenched. There was fear in his eyes that she knew would be reflected in her own. Gwen was close behind him, her hand in his. She gave Morgana a small smile that said for the two of them everything that Arthur was too afraid to. A kind of calmness settled over her at the sight of them, she had people in her life that she could rely on to always be there. Following Gwen was someone Morgana hadn’t expected to see, someone who drove the butterflies in her stomach wild.

“What’s Dr. Alexander doing here? I didn’t know that your family had employed a second expert witness.” The guard’s interest increased. “You really must be paying through the nose.”

Morgana made a note of Nikki’s eminence. It was the second time she had heard her referred to with that mix of awe and intrigue by people she didn’t even know. She obviously had her fair share of admirers, Morgana could definitely see why.

“We haven’t.”

The door at the other side of the room opened. She felt her cuffs being tugged.

“Stand up.”

~*~

The hearing didn’t take long. The Pendragon family lawyer far outclassed the one provided by the state. Harry had given carefully impartial evidence, his wording making clear both that the DNA match was about as good as it got but that skin could very easily get under your fingernails, especially that belonging to someone with whom you either worked or socialised with. As he stood down, Morgana noticed an extended look passing between him and Nikki. It seemed that he hadn’t known she was going to be there either.

Though Morgana had been given a curfew, been ordered to stay with her brother and had committed to handing over twice her yearly salary, she had been granted bail. Within the hour she was wrapped tightly in Arthur’s arms, not wanting to ever let go.

“I missed you so much,” he whispered into her hair, strengthening his hold on her. “I need you. I can’t do this without you.”

She breathed in deeply. “It’ll be okay,” she murmured. He wasn’t thirteen anymore but she couldn’t fight the urge to want to protect him from the all that was bad in the world.

“Arthur, let go,” Gwen said impatiently, rocking on her heels.

Morgana laughed, tears staining her cheeks as Arthur reluctantly let go and Gwen instantly flung her arms around her neck, kissing her wet cheek before squeezing her again. Never would she have believed that she would have missed them both so much.

As close as she was pressed to her, she swore she could feel the swell of Gwen’s abdomen against her. It made skin tingle. Pulling back, she tilted her head and narrowed her eyes at Gwen’s stretched shirt inquisitively. It had only been two weeks but she was sure that the bump was beginning to show. A slow smile spread across her face.

Gwen rolled her eyes. “There’s nothing there. What is it with you two?”

“I told you!” Arthur said triumphantly, smiling brightly for the first time since Morgana had been taken away. He turned to Morgana. “You felt it, didn’t you? There’s definitely a bump.”

“Definitely,” Morgana said, chuckling as Gwen swatted away Arthur’s hand as he tried to feel her stomach.

“Will you stop doing that!” she shrieked, clearly not annoyed if her grin was anything to go by.

“We have the first proper scan tomorrow,” Arthur said excitedly. “You are coming, right?”

“It should just be for you and Gwen,” Morgana said pointedly. She couldn’t imagine Gwen being pleased with him just inviting her out of blue.

“Oh,” Arthur said, his smile fading.

“Don’t be silly, Morgana,” Gwen said, watching fondly as Arthur grinned again. “Of course you should come, I wouldn’t have it any other way. You have to meet your new niece or nephew.”

Morgana sniffed, blinking back tears. She was not going cry, she was not going to cry. That would just be ridiculous and she couldn’t even blame it on hormones. Shaking her head to pull herself together, she noticed Nikki standing a few meters away, arms clasped around her stomach.

The blonde waved meekly.

Gwen looked confused as Morgana waved. She looked over her shoulder and formed an ‘O’ of understanding with her mouth.

“We’ll meet you back at home.” Gwen took Arthur by the arm, squeezing it when he tried to protest in bewilderment as she dragged him away.

Once her family were out of sight, Morgana moved to take a step closer to Nikki, stopping when she saw Nikki’s sharp intake of breath.

“I didn’t think I would see you again,” Morgana said, walking over to the stone bench that stood against the wall and sitting down. It was an invitation.

“I didn’t think you would want to,” Nikki said, crossing the marble floor to take a seat next to Morgana.

Silence hung heavy between them. A minute passed, maybe more.

“I’ve been suspended,” Nikki said finally. “The day you were... When we got the results of the DNA results back... everything went so fast.”

Morgana sighed. “I shouldn’t have let you put your job in jeopardy, it was selfish.”

“You know, I thought I would regret it. Before, when I knew this was a possibility, I thought I would regret it if it happened. I don’t.” She looked Morgana in the eye for the first time. “I know you didn’t do it. They will find that out.”

Morgana smiled, dropping her head. “That’s sweet, it really is, but that isn’t how the world works. No one will crusade for my freedom. No evidence will appear at the last minute to clear my name.”

“My colleagues, my friends, they won’t let this happen,” Nikki insisted, her hand subconsciously reaching out for Morgana. “I won’t let this happen.”

“Well, this is cosy.” It was Anderson.

Nikki felt Morgana tense beside her, not out of hatred for the man, but fear. She withdrew her hand.

“Quite a conflict of interest, isn’t it? I heard you had taken a... holiday.”

“I have no involvement in the case,” Nikki said simply, raising her chin. “There is no interest to be conflicted.”

He just laughed and walked away.

There was another silence, longer than the last.

“I’m sorry to ask, but Gwen and Arthur seem to have forgotten that I don’t exactly have any money on me.” Morgana’s voice was unsure and Nikki knew that there was no way she could ever refuse her anything.

~*~

“It’s not as bad as I expected.”

Morgana was lying, of that Nikki was sure. Clean lines and elegant styling had been blackened and burnt; the Derry skyline lay on the floor amongst twisted plastic and shattered glass. Boot prints tracked up the stairs and into the living room, taking the devastation with them into the rest of the house.

“The police aren’t known for their care at crime scenes,” Nikki said, instantly wanting to take it back. “Morgana, I didn’t mean-”

“It’s okay.” Morgana turned away and started up the stairs. “It is a crime scene. It _feels_  like a crime scene.”

Nikki sighed and followed. “I didn’t mean to say that.”

“My whole life had become a crime scene,” Morgana’s accent was stronger in her irritated tone. “And I’m not pissed off at you, I’m just pissed off,” she said holding a hand up to tell Nikki that her temper wasn’t directed at her.

“You have every right to be.” Nikki followed into the bedroom and reached out for Morgana’s hand, pulling her back. “Someone is setting you up and I swear to you that I will find out who that is.”

“How can you be so sure of me?” Morgana asked, her entire demeanour a world away from what it had been that night in the bar. The confidence had been knocked clear out of her. “Alone in that prison cell, I even started to doubt myself.”

“I trust you, completely,” Nikki said, her breathing uneven.

“Why?” Morgana asked, confusion etched on her face.

Her heart beating wildly, Nikki leant in and kissed her fiercely. “Because I can feel it,” she whispered. “Because, stupid as it sounds,” her hand came up to cup Morgana’s cheek, “you’re all I can think about. I know we barely know each other but-” She gasped as Morgana kissed her, cutting her off, taking complete control. It was enough to make Nikki’s knees go weak.

“You have no idea how much I’ve needed to do this,” Morgana breathed, backing her slowly against the wall. “How many times I’ve imagined kissing you since that night.”

“Not nearly as many times as I have,” Nikki choked, clinging to Morgana as warm lips traced over her jaw and down her neck. “Christ Morgana, what have you done to me? I was so sure of my life, sure of what I wanted, even if I was too scared of ruining things to do anything about it. I can barely think anymore, everything comes back to you. I - ah!” A cold hand found the warm skin of her stomach, tracing under her shirt, moving higher and higher.

“Are you sure about this?” Morgana asked, a whisperer against her collar bone followed by a gentle nip.

“No,” Nikki admitted, her head falling back as her chest rose in a surging breath. “But don’t stop.” She tangled her hand in Morgana’s hair as her head moved lower. “Please, just don’t stop.”

~*~

Harry took of his scarf and reached for cup of tea Leo was extending towards him. He couldn’t stop thinking about the court, how he had come so close to breaking with his logical conclusions for his illogical convictions, for Nikki. He would do anything for her. Lie, cheat, anything to get her back and to see her smile again. As much as he loved Leo, it wasn’t the same without Nikki. One look from her could melt away any darkness, could wipe any horror he had seen. Nearly every day they had met; lunch, dinner, sometimes even breakfast. She couldn’t stand staying home all day, barred from the work she loved, and he couldn’t stand it without her either. The three of them were a family, Leo, Nikki and him, they had each other’s backs, knew when a case was getting one of them down, knew exactly how to make everything alright again. It wasn’t Leo’s fault, but Harry couldn’t help but resent him.

“How did it go?” Leo asked.

“She got bail.” Harry took a sip of the scalding tea, closing his eyes as it burnt down his throat. “Nikki was there.”

Leo looked down at his feet. “How does she seem?”

“Down, as she has been ever since you suspended her.” Harry’s tone was sharper than he had anticipated. He took a deep breath. “Sorry, I didn’t mean that.” He pushed his hand through his hair. “I just can’t stand this.”

“Do you really believe that Morgana didn’t do it?” Leo asked carefully.

“Completely,” Harry said.

Leo sighed. “Then we had better prove it.”

Harry smiled at him gratefully. “Leo...”

“This is just as hard for me as it is for you,” Leo said. He picked up the file that lay on his desk and handed it to Harry “That’s everything I could find out about Uther Pendragon and his company. Every single complaint against him, the company or any of its partners. I think I may have found something.”

Harry opened the file, his mouth open in surprise. “When did you-”

“Since that day,” Leo said. “Janet and I have been going through all of it, looking for anything that stands out. Last night we found that.” He gestured to the print out in the front of the file.

“Twenty-two year old student Meredith Emrys found dead in her apartment,” Harry read aloud. After a minute he looked up, confused. “This is in Washington state, what could this possibly have to do with Pendragon.”

“She was getting paid to take part in a trial for new migraine drug, Trabecaline, but she failed to inform the clinic running the trial that she was an asthmatic. The drugs interacted with her Salbutamol causing severe bronchiospasm. She lied on the release form, absolving the company sponsoring the trial of any liability.”

“I still don’t see what this has to do with the case.” Harry said, turning the page, his faced drained of colour. “Oh.”

“Yes, oh,” Leo concurred.

“And you think this means that...” he trailed off.

Leo nodded.

“Have you handed this over to the police?” Harry asked, closing the file.

“Twenty minutes ago.”

Harry nodded, letting it settle in. “I’ve got to call Nikki.”


	11. Chapter 11

“We should get going.”

Leaving the comfort of Morgana’s soft cotton sheets was the last thing that Nikki wanted to. Spirited away from the world with cool sheets, warm skin and bright sun against her, she felt as though all of the trouble that waited for them outside of the paradise of the bedroom were a million miles away. Life had gotten very complicated for the both of them in the past couple of months and although they’d had plenty of time to think, what with incarceration and suspension, this was the first time Nikki had felt the tension leave her body. It would be easy, and probably at least partially right, to put that down to the lingering effects of afterglow but the fluttering in her stomach and the irrepressible ghost of a smile were undeniably signs that she was falling for the fellow scientist – even if she was a microbiologist.

Last time she had visited it, she hadn’t taken the time to appreciate just how beautiful the room was. The sheets were a heady mix of burgundy and black, a theme that was carried through to the canvas lamps and heavy drawn-back curtains. Low, dark pine bedside tables held two of the four lamps, along with bottled water and an open glasses case and cleaning-cloth that had no right to be that adorable. The walls were painted brilliant white to match the carpet, except for the one directly ahead of the bed which was the same deep red as the bed. Golden letters stood in relief against the red paint, ‘I have nothing to declare but my genius’. An Oscar Wilde quote, how very Morgana.

“Are you really that keen to leave? Should I be getting insecure?” Morgana’s voice was light and still slightly breathy as her lips brushed against Nikki’s forehead.

Nikki lifted herself up onto her side so that she could look down at Morgana and make a show of considering the questions. “No,” she said eventually.

Morgana raised an eyebrow. “To which question?”

Laughing, Nikki leaned down to kiss her lightly. “Ah, that would be telling.”

“You’re going to be trouble, aren’t you?” Morgana laughed, wrinkling her nose as strands of Nikki’s hair tickled it.

Nikki’s mouth fell open in mock offense. “I’m not the one who was in a prison cell less than 5 hours ago!”

“Hey, I’m innocent!” Morgana protested, pinching Nikki’s sides lightly.

Still being subjected to a tickling attack, wriggling and giggling, Nikki fell on top of Morgana. “Ah! Stop it! No – ah – I’m far too ticklish for this!”

Holding her hands up in surrender and smirking devilishly, Morgana said, “Good to know.”

Smiling, Nikki got herself comfortable on Morgana’s stomach. “So you plan on keeping me around then?”

“Providing I’m not being detained at Her Majesty’s Pleasure,” Morgana said teasingly, though she felt a cold sinking feeling at the thought.

“You won’t be,” Nikki promised.

Shaking the feeling away, Morgana slipped her arms around Nikki’s back. “So, how was the second time around?”

“As good as the first,” Nikki assured her, absently playing with a curl of Morgana’s hair.

“And that was good?”

“My, my, you are insecure,” Nikki smiled.

“Just considerate, you’ll notice that,” Morgana grinned. “You managed to have that talk with your best friend yet? Or is it still too risky to talk to Harry about all of this?”

“Yes we’ve talked and yes, it probably is still too risky, but I trust Harry. He kept our secret, defended you in front of others. In fact, my boss, Leo, thought that  _he_  was sleeping with you.”

“I don’t think that would really work,” Morgana quipped, rubbing slow circles on the small of Nikki’s back.

“No, you’re far too similar. Not that that has anything to do with this. Believe me when I say that any lingering feelings for Harry have been pushed  _far_ out of my mind.”

“Good to know,” Morgana smiled as Nikki kissed her briefly. “What happened after...” she searched her mind for the name, “Leo accused Harry? I can’t imagine he was best pleased.”

“Neither was I!” Nikki said indignantly. “I quickly put him right.”

“Aww, I’m flattered,” Morgana cooed.

“You should be. It’s what got me suspended. Harry was more than happy to take the fall for me.”

“I’ll have to buy him chocolates as a thank you.” Morgana narrowed her eyes in playful confusion. “Or not chocolates, what do boys like?”

“Chocolate’s fine,” Nikki laughed. “Though I think he might sway the evidence in our favour if you baked him a chocolate fondant again.”

“What did I warn you about not expecting cooking on demand?” Morgana teased, dragging her nails up Nikki’s sides, making her arch into her.

“I would be very grateful,” Nikki promised.

Morgana tilted her head to the side, considering Nikki’s offer. “How grateful?”

“Very,  _very_  grateful.”

~*~

It was over an hour later, as Nikki was pulling on her top, that her phone started vibrating to the sound of Top Gear.

“Hello? Harry?” Nikki answered, turning away from Morgana’s amused look at her choice of ringtone.

“Where are you?” Harry asked.

The serious tone of his voice sent a cold shiver down her spine. “Do you really want to know?”

“I take it that means you’re with Morgana?”

“Yes, is that a problem?”

Harry sighed, though for some reason, Nikki knew it wasn’t directed at her or Morgana. “No. Are you alone, or are you with her family?”

“Alone. Harry, what’s going on?”

“Your flat? Her house? Somewhere else?”

“Her house. Harry, what’s going on?” Her voice had taken on an edge of panic and Morgana was quickly at her side, tangling their fingers together and giving her an encouraging smile.

“Stay there and lock the doors. Don’t make any sign that could show that you’re in the house, don’t answer the phone and definitely don’t open the door. I’m coming to get you.”

When the line went dead, Nikki dropped her phone onto the bed, trying to push down the cold feeling of dread rising within her.

“What is it?” Morgana asked, squeezing Nikki’s hand.

“He didn’t say, but he did say to stay put, lock all the doors, not answer the phone and wait for him.” Nikki’s eyes were wide when she met Morgana’s gaze.

“Then we wait,” Morgana said, answering Nikki’s silent question.

“I think that they may have found something.”

“The sort of something that could explain why my hall looks like the inside of an oven?”

Nikki nodded. “I think so.”

~*~

Returning to Leo’s office, phone still in hand, Harry grabbed his coat from the back of his chair. “I’m going to pick them up,” Harry said quickly, pulling on his coat. “They’re at Morgana’s house.”

“Where will you take them?” Leo asked, reaching for his own keys and coat. “You can’t bring them back here and if you bring them back to yours then you’ll be off the case, not my call, but you’ll be off the case and the whole thing is out of our hands.”

“Where then?” Leo asked, his mind incapable of thinking rationally where Nikki concerned, especially when she was in possible danger.

“I’m not officially connected to the case. I’ll ring Janet and tell her we’re coming, she isn’t at work this week.”

Harry nodded. “Okay... Okay...” His mind flagged up another problem. “Nikki’s probably got her car with her. What shall we do? Leave it there?”

“I’ll come with you in your car and then follow you in Nikki’s with Morgana, then, if we’re stopped, you won’t be seen with her.” Leo ushered them out his office door, pulling it behind him and locking it.

“Morgana has a curfew,” Harry reminded him.

“I think that the police will be a little too busy checking immigration records and sending out protection for everyone connected with Pendragon inc. after what we’ve just given them, don’t you? And that’s not to mention the political ramifications of all of this.”

“I think you may be right.”

~*~

It had been half an hour since Harry’s call, half an hour in which all of the doors and windows had been checked and they had been very careful not to be seen at the windows. The overwhelming feeling wasn’t fear but the persistent feeling that this was just some kind of childhood game in which danger was around every corner and everything seemed far more dramatic then it was through an adult’s eye. Nevertheless, she jumped when her phone buzzed in her hand. Harry’s name flashed on the screen of her silenced mobile. “Harry?”

“I’m outside, Leo’s with me. Are you both okay?”

“Fine, a little scared maybe. What’s going on, Harry?”

“I’ll tell you when we get to Leo’s,” Harry promised.

“Morgana as well?” Nikki’s breath caught.

“Yes, of course. Leo’s going to take her in your car and I’ll drive you.”

Nikki nodded, she knew that asking about the travel arrangements would only get her another ‘I’ll tell you when we get to Leo’s’. Realising he couldn’t see her nodding, she said, “Okay. See you in a minute.”

She hung up.

Morgana stood and smiled at Nikki reassuringly, pulling her up by their joined hands. “Let’s go.”

When Morgana dropped her hand as they reached the stairs, Nikki was surprised at how keenly she felt the cold of absence, enough that she was stopped dead. Knowing it wasn’t really the time to be cataloguing the signs that she was falling far past ‘like’ into a much stronger word that also began with ‘L’, she pushed her hands into her jean pockets and followed Morgana down the stairs. She could see Harry silhouetted in the frosted glass of the door.

“It’s me,” Harry said through the door, though Nikki hadn’t thought to check.

Morgana slid the chain off the door and turned the lock.

“Are you okay?” Harry asked as soon as the door was open, looking from Morgana back to Nikki.

“I told you, we’re fine,” Nikki assured him, moving past Morgana to hug him and then Leo. “Are you going to tell us what’s going on?” As Harry opened his mouth to answer, she said it for him, “You’ll tell us when we get to Leo’s”

He smiled, nodding. “Yes. Now if you would please give Leo your- ” He was cut off by the sudden appearance of a bunch of car keys dangling from Nikki’s hand. “I should have just let you organise this whole rescue for yourself, shouldn’t I?”

Nikki laughed, Harry could always make her laugh. “Probably, but seeing as you won’t tell me what’s going on, it would have proved a little difficult.” Turning away from Harry and Leo, she kissed Morgana quickly, squeezing her arm. “I’ll see you in few minutes. Leo won’t bite, I promise,” she whispered. The seriousness of the situation was starting to fade now that her friends were here. It couldn’t be that bad, could it? Harry was probably overreacting.

Looking to Harry as the obvious authority on the situation, Morgana asked, “Can I call my brother or does your radio silence warning still hold?”

“You can call your brother,” Harry confirmed, laughing slightly. Maybe he _had_  been to serious on the phone. Leo had told him so, but he hadn’t believed him.

“And they are more than welcome to meet us at my house,” Leo offered. “I’ll give you the address in the car.”

Morgana nodded and followed Leo down the path, leaving Nikki and Harry alone in the doorway.

“Are you really okay?” Harry asked.

“I’m really okay,” she assured him.

He nodded. “Okay, lets go.”

Morgana’s first impression of Leo was that he was a little bit like Uther, but without the cold edge in his eye. She had been a little apprehensive about being alone with him, but he quickly put that worry to rest.

“Do you want to drive? I think Nikki would kill me if I moved her seat.” He held out the keys to her. “Assuming she doesn’t mind,” he said loudly.

“Don’t mind what?” Nikki asked, emerging from Morgana’s gate.

“Morgana driving,” Leo filled in.

“As long as you don’t move the seat,” Nikki said, smiling at Morgana.

“See,” Leo whispered, dropping the keys into Morgana’s waiting hand, “I told you she had a thing about the seat.”

“It was very hard to get it in the right position again after it came back from its MOT!” Nikki protested, as Harry manoeuvred her around to the passenger door of his car.

“Be quiet and get in the car, Nikki,” Harry said, good naturedly, opening the door and  _‘encouraging’_  her inside. He shut the door with a bang. “See you in a few minutes,” he smiled at Leo and Morgana, before getting into the car.

“Did he scare her, on the phone?” Leo asked as he watched Harry’s car pull away.

“I think so,” Morgana said.

“He was just worried. He wouldn’t believe that she was okay until he could see it for himself,” Leo said, walking around to the passenger side of Nikki’s car.

“It’s alright, I get it and she does too,” Morgana said, getting into the driver’s seat. It was only slightly too far forward for her. “Now, are you going to fill me on in what’s going on or do I have to wait until we get to yours too?”

Leo’s door shut with a snap. “It’s a long story.”

“How about I put your address into the Sat Nav and you fill me in on the way?” Morgana asked with an irresistible smile.

Nodding in agreement, Leo said, “It should already be in there, Nikki’s terrible with directions.” He had prepared himself not to like Morgana, she had put Nikki’s career in danger and possibly her life, but he found any irritation he felt for her slipping away. He should have known better than to question Nikki’s judgement; she was and always had been the best judge of character, much better than Harry or himself.

“Leo and Janet, Corssdale Rd?” Morgana asked, squinting at the tiny writing on the Sat Nav display.

“That’s the one.”


	12. Chapter 12

In spite of having been utterly terrified just half an hour earlier, Nikki could feel her heart rate slowing, gradually, to more normal level. She no longer felt those jerky muscle spasms that came with that level of adrenaline and she had stopped shivering. In short, she was calming down.

As loath as she was to admit it, Harry’s phone call had shaken her. The thought that somebody was after Morgana, possibly the same someone who had killed Uther and set fire to the house, was far scarier that she would have imagined. Being separated from her when so much was happening, even if it was only for the journey, was unsettling. It was making her worry not only for Morgana, but for Leo too.

“You didn’t have to manhandle me into the car,” she huffed in annoyance, after a minute or two of silence. She wasn’t really upset with Harry. His hair was far too fluffy at the moment for that. He bore a striking resemblance to a kitten that had fallen in the bath and had been blow-dried to stop it catching a cold. Not quite cute – alright, maybe a little – but definitely far too harmless looking to hold a grudge against. Though it was starting to irritate her, how easily he had shaken her over the phone.

“ _That_  wasn’t manhandling,” Harry scoffed, turning to her and smiling quickly before looking back to the road. It was that charming smile he gave the new work experience students.

“Do you think it says something about our characters that we make light of dangerous situations? Maybe it’s an inbuilt coping mechanism for pathologists?” Nikki asked, not really expecting an answer, which was good since she didn’t get one. Sighing, she asked, “Are you going to tell me what this is all about or are you worried that your car is bugged?” It came out a little harder than she had intended but Harry didn’t seem to notice.

“Paranoid? Me? Never.”

“Harry!” Huffing for the second time, Nikki leaned back in her seat and tried to catch sight of her car in the wing mirror. She relaxed a little when she caught sight of it a few cars behind them. “Leo’s probably telling Morgana right now.”

“Call and ask her then,” Harry suggested, flicking on the right indicator and smoothly navigating the corner.

“She’s driving,” Nikki countered. “Just tell me.”

“I have a condition.”

“What condition?” Nikki asked warily.

“I want you to answer a few questions for me first,” Harry bargained.

“Go on.”

“What were you doing with Morgana?” he asked hesitantly.

“What do you think we were doing?” Nikki laughed, though not with humour. The fluffy kitten factor was wearing off, fast.

Harry rolled his eyes.

“What? Don’t tell me you’re jealous all of a sudden?”

“Do you trust her?” Harry asked, avoiding Nikki’s question. He  _was_  jealous but he wasn’t going to tell her that now that she had a chance of being happy. “Really trust her?”

“Yes,” Nikki said honestly, “I do.” It was the first time she had thought about it, but she did, she trusted her completely. Maybe it was a little naive.

“Why?”

“I don’t know, because she hasn’t lied to me? She hasn’t, not once, and she’s tried so hard to do things right, despite everything that’s happened. She makes me feel comfortable,” Nikki said, taking another look at her car in the wing mirror. When she saw a flash of black hair, she smiled.

“Have you thought about what kind of person picks up that sort of skill, making people feel comfortable?” He had to be sure that Nikki knew what she was doing, even if she disliked him for it.

“The kind of person who hasn’t had the smoothest life,” Nikki said defensively. “Why exactly is it that you dislike her so much?”

“I don’t dislike her. I’d go so far as to say that I like her. I just want to make sure that...”

“Sure that what?” Nikki asked, more exasperated than angry.

“That you’re sure of her, sure of you and her, together,” Harry said softly. “I don’t want you to get hurt, not again. This is a mess, whether she has done anything wrong or not.”

“I know,” Nikki sighed, combing her hand though her hair. She cracked the window and smiled as the cool air hit her skin. “But I am, I’m sure. Really, really sure. In fact, I’m hundreds of hours of thinking about it sort of sure. ”

Harry laughed, “Okay.” He paused, turning briefly to give her a soft smile. This one was genuine, the kind that he saved only for Nikki. “I’m glad.”

~*~

“Oaklow.”

Morgana frowned. “It sounds like a rehab centre.”

“It’s an American pharmaceutical company that your stepfather was in business with,” Leo said, reaching out to steady himself on the dashboard when Morgana braked a little too sharply at a ball bouncing into the road. “Are you sure you haven’t heard of it? Your company has been involved with them for years.”

“I don’t do business,” Morgana said distractedly, debating whether to follow Harry or the Sat Nav. She didn’t particularly want to put her faith in either. “I would go so far as to say that I do my best to avoid it completely.”

“You have missed your turning. Please turn around at the nearest safe point or wait for your route to be recalculated,” said the ever pleasant disembodied voice of the navigational system. “You have missed your turning. Please turn around at the nearest safe point or wait for your route to be recalculated.”

“Oh, for God’s sake,” Morgana cursed, jabbing at the display until she found the mute button. “Uther dealt with all of that, I worked there under the condition that I didn’t have anything to do with that side of things. I didn’t want to know what was going on behind the scenes, you know? I had enough of feeling guilty when I worked for a drugs giant my first year out of university. I couldn’t go a day without seeing an article about something shady going on. Though, to be fair, I did have it on Google alerts.”

Leo nodded sympathetically. “That’s why I prefer the public sector.”

“Though that isn't without its own problems, especially with Cameron at Number 10,” Morgana said, biting her tongue to stop herself from getting into a rant.

“Nothing ever is,” Leo agreed.

“What does this American company...” Morgana gestured vaguely with the hand she had been resting on the gearstick, searching for the company name in her memory.

“Oaklow,” Leo filled in.

“Oaklow. What does Oaklow have to do with this?” Morgana finished.

“They were running a trial in the states with the backing of your stepfather. There was a woman, Meredith Emrys, who failed to declare a pre-existing condition on her release form, trying to makw sure that she was accepted onto the trial. She died of severe bronchospasms caused by an interaction with the Salbutamol she was taking.” Leo paused to gage her understanding.

“Both companies were absolved of any accountability? That’s got to piss off her family.” Morgana guessed.

“Exactly. Her brother, Merlin, tried to sue them _several_  times but he couldn’t persuade any reputable law firm to take the case. He couldn’t pay them what they were asking for and most of them had clients in the industry with a vested interest in seeing that it never went to court. That’s when he started to – err – change tactics,” Leo explained. “There have been break-ins and vandalism at Oaklow’s headquarters in Ohio and he has started a rather colourful blog. It turns out that he discovered a couple of months ago that Oaklow was only fronting the trial, that hadn’t put up the money.”

“It was us, wasn’t it?” It wasn’t a question.

~*~

“And you think it was him, this _Merlin_?” Nikki asked, her eyes wide as she sat forward in her seat.

“Leo and Janet seem to think so. He as good as took credit for everything online, apparently,” Harry said. “You can ask her about it when we get there. She’ll have a better idea than any of us.”

“She will,” Nikki agreed. “But how would we know if he’s even in the country?”

“We won’t. We’ll leave that to the police, it’s about time they did something.” He sounded a little bitter. “Even after all the...  _idiocy_  we’ve seen from them over the years, this really does take the biscuit. That a pathologist uncovered more with a Google search than an entire police force could in almost 2 months, is a sad indication of the current state of our-” He searched for the word, failing. “Police people things.”

“‘Police people things’?” She snorted a laugh.

“The word disappeared mid-sentence. You know what I mean,” Harry said shortly.

 “I do.” she said, smiling fondly. She wondered if it had been this that’d wound him up earlier, making him scare her.

“I just can’t believe that they could be so stupid! Clearly anyone who has actually met Morgana would know that she couldn’t have killed Pendragon. She’s like a little girl behind all of that front, scared and devastated,” Harry continued.

“Thanks for that image, that hasn’t made me feel awkward at all,” Nikki interjected, wrinkling her nose at the thought.

“Okay, maybe a wounded puppy. Is that better?”

Nikki rolled her eyes. “Marginally.” Now she was wondering if she had thing for tall, dark and gorgeous scientists whose alter egos were fluffy baby animals.

“I mean honestly, she had an alibi for the fire and even if she didn’t, there’s no way that she could have set alight her own house. Even I you must have noticed the OCD screaming from every perfectly tidy corner of the place. Setting a fire in that pristine white hall? Definitely not. God knows how she’ll react to you leaving your mess everywhere. Has she got a study? If she has I’ll have to warn her about your desk-stealing tendencies.”

“I’m not that messy.” The force of Harry’s acceleration was starting to force her backwards in her seat.

“And she clearly adores her brother – I don’t think I’d be so keen to give my brother and my ex-girlfriend my approval to get married! If she loves him enough to give him that then she could never take his father away from him. Not to mention that he was practically her father as well or at the very least the only one she ever knew.”

“Harry, as touching as your defence of my girlfriend is, you’re about to break 50 in a 30 zone,” Nikki interrupted, her hand clasped around the handle of the door white with pressure. “The last thing we need is for you to get yourself arrested or worse, crash.”

Harry slowed the car, a slow smile creeping onto his lips. “Did you just say ‘girlfriend’?”

Nikki clamped her mouth shut. “I was scared. You were driving too fast.”

“You did, you definitely did. You said: ‘my girlfriend’.” His smile broke out into a full grin.

“Shut up!” she demanded, the corners of her mouth twitching upwards.

“That’s a big step,” Harry teased after a moment. “Do you want me to help you move your stuff in? An old friend of mine has a van; he owes me a favour.”

“As pretty as her charred and burnt house is, there is no way I’m giving up my flat. It took me three years on a waiting list to get a place in that building,” Nikki retorted. “It’s beautiful.”

“It’s a bit small though, in comparison.”

“It is  _not_!”

~*~

“Just here on the left,” Leo indicated, gesturing to a space that had been left in front of a tidy looking semi-detached. “I think Harry and Nikki are already inside.”

“That’s because he drives like a maniac,” Morgana stated flatly.

“He does.” Leo nodded. “Nikki hates getting into a car with him.”

“Now I know why her ringtone for him is the Top Gear theme.” She undid her belt and looked sheepishly at the space on the dashboard where the Sat Nav used to be.

“Maybe next time you should go with the Sat Nav? It’s a bit easier to follow.”

“Mis-programmed missiles are easier to follow.”

A woman, who Morgana assumed was Janet, was waiting for them at the door, arms folded across her chest, an indecipherable smile playing on her lips. As she walked up towards the house, Morgana had the uncomfortable feeling that she was being scrutinised. Maybe it was because Leo had told her what Janet did for a living or maybe it was because Nikki seemed to inspire such loyalty in her friends.

“I’m Janet,” the doorkeeper said, offering her hand.

“Morgana,” Morgana said, taking Janet’s hand, being careful to squeeze just the right amount. “I hear that I have you to thank for this.”

“I’m very fond of Nikki,” Janet said, still blocking the doorway.

“Erm... So am I,” Morgana said, sounding less sure than she was and wishing she had let Leo get to the door first.

She felt his hand on her shoulder.

“She’s joking,” Leo whispered, squeezing her.

A true smile spread across Janet’s face. “Come on in,” she said, nodding behind her. “Nikki’s inside.”

It took a good deal of Morgana’s self control not to run through the house to Nikki. The gorgeous blonde pathologist had her feeling like a giddy teenager, full of the first blooms of love. She would have found it highly embarrassing if she wasn’t too enthralled to care.

“You made it then?” Nikki said with a smile, pulling her into a short kiss-hello in the middle of the dining room-kitchen, not caring if they were being watched. “Sorry about Harry’s boy racer bit. I thought we’d lost you for a minute there,” she whispered, marvelling in the privacy that Morgana’s hair hanging around their faces afforded them, taking the opportunity to steal another quick kiss. She loved kissing her, she just couldn’t help herself.

“You’ll have to try harder than that. Though I may have taken it out on your Sat Nav,” Morgana laughed, feeling a rush as Nikki rested her hands on her waist.

Nikki laughed. “In what way?”

“Nothing really.”

“For the first time, Morgana Lafferty, I don’t believe a word you’re saying,” Nikki said, dodging a kiss.

“I may have pulled it off the dashboard and thrown it onto the back seat hard enough to make it shut up... That evil woman kept telling me that I was going the wrong way. I’ll buy you another one.”

“Spoilt brat.” Laughing again, Nikki rocked forward onto her tiptoes to kiss Morgana’s pouting lips.

Harry coughed loudly and pointedly. “As much as I’m enjoying this sickeningly sweet display of affection, there is the pressing issue of a vengeance fuelled American trying to bring about your doom.”

Reluctantly, Nikki pulled away, taking the seat opposite Janet at the table. “Have you phoned your brother?” she asked Morgana, shooting an amused smile at Harry. He was definitely jealous and, surprisingly, she didn’t care.

Morgana nodded. “I didn’t want them to be alone, not if it is this Emrys man.”

“I said they could come here,” Leo said, sitting beside Janet.

“Of course,” Janet smiled at Morgana. “They’re your family.”

“I know that all of you are doing it for Nikki, but I do really appreciate it,” Morgana said sincerely, looking from Leo to Janet to Harry.

“Yes well, we don’t dislike you too much.” Harry was smiling but Morgana thought she saw a hint of sadness in his eyes. She empathised with him, she know how it felt. She also knew that he would get over it.

“Oh, Harry definitely likes you,” Nikki said, grinning from Morgana to Harry. “He gave a whole speech in the car about how ridiculous it was that the police arrested you and how obvious it is that you’re innocent. I thought he was going to break the land-speed record. It was terribly sweet.”

“Aww, Harry,” Janet cooed as the kitchen descended into laughter.

“Nikki called you her girlfriend,” Harry said to Morgana over the laughter.

The laughter stopped.

“Not intentionally,” Nikki said, blushing. Then looking at Morgana she said quickly, “Not that I don’t mean it, if you do... Mean it, I mean.” She blushed even more.

A knock at the door saved her from saying anything else.


	13. Chapter 13

  
Word from the police didn’t come that evening and by eleven o’clock everyone was at least trying to sleep.

~*~

Tossing restlessly on the sofa, Harry stared up at the dappled light on the ceiling. A storm was brewing. Rain came down against the window with a force that seemed almost impossible. Harry’s last thought before exhaustion finally lulled him to sleep was of how it was almost like a metaphor from a 19th century gothic novel by Mary Shelley or someone equally dark and broody.

~*~

Arthur had fallen asleep almost as soon as his head had hit the pillow in one of the two guest bedrooms. Only a single wall stood between him and Morgana. For the first time in weeks he felt as though his world wasn’t falling apart. Morgana was safe, Gwen was safe and he finally had an idea of what was going on.

~*~

Beside him, Gwen lay still and thoughtful. If she held her breath and didn’t move a muscle, she could hear the rise and fall of the conversation next door. At a flutter in her abdomen, she let out her breath and gasped another one. The low down feeling was somewhere between nervous butterflies and that horrible feeling she always got when Arthur made her watch Alien.

She wasn’t sure, but she thought that she had felt the baby move.

~*~

Next door, Nikki and Morgana lay facing each other in the in small double bed, pressed close by necessity and want both. It was a little awkward, everyone had assumed they would be sharing a room but they were still new, they were still feeling each other out.

“It’s been a long day,” Nikki murmured, eyes on her fingers playing over Morgana’s wrist.

“Yeah,” Morgana agreed, catching Nikki’s fingers. “It has.”

“I like this,” Nikki said, smiling sleepily, “being with you, like this. Even in a situation as mad as this is.”

“Me too.” Releasing Nikki’s hand, Morgana slid her hands under the cover and wrapped her arms around Nikki’s waist, pulling her flush against her. For a few minutes they lost themselves in a kiss that hovered just on the languid side of passionate. “Did you mean it?” Morgana asked, her lips just out of Nikki’s reach, barely touching, teasing.

“Mean what?” Nikki asked, a little breathless.

“The girlfriend thing,” Morgana said, still teasingly close.

Feeling like a teenager, Nikki blushed. Being with Morgana was like starting again. She didn’t know the rules. “If you want to be,” she began hesitantly, “then I want you to be.”

Morgana just laughed richly and hoisted herself up until she was leaning over Nikki, her hair falling to form a curtain around them just as it had in the kitchen. Pressing into the smaller blonde, Morgana kissed her, quickly slipping her tongue inside Nikki’s mouth and brushing her free hand under her makeshift pyjama top. A strong urge to plunder her completely rose up like fire in her stomach and burned up her sides. Nikki was so perfect and pure, it made her want to kiss every inch of skin. She shivered as she resisted.

Hovering above her, Morgana smirked. “Is that your way of asking me out?”

Nikki’s mouth fell open in surprise, her face the picture of confusion. “I – I have to ask you out?”

Snorting in her inability to contain her laugher, Morgana dropped Nikki’s gaze. “No, I was joking. I think we’re just a little bit beyond that, don’t you?”

Smiling in relief, Nikki swatted the arm Morgana was snaking under her top. “If you’re going to make fun of me then you can take your hand back right now.”

“And if I’m nice to you?” Morgana dared moving her hand an inch higher.

“That depends how nice you are,” Nikki countered, her eyes twinkling. “I may take a fair bit of persuading after that little joke.”

Narrowing her eyes playfully Morgana stated her offer. “Something sparkly and an acknowledgement in my next paper.”

“What, in Molecular Microbiology? You’re going to have to try a little harder than that,” Nikki laughed.

“Fine, how about dinner at the Ivy in place of the acknowledgement? Though you’ll be sorry when Excalibur makes Nature.” The look on Nikki’s face as she said it told her instantly of her mistake. It didn’t matter that she had just offered to take her to the most famous and possibly most expensive restaurant in the city, she had just let slip what was only ever meant to be between her and her petri dishes.

Nikki swallowed back her laughter. “Excalibur? As in King Arthur, knights of the round table and lady of the lake? That’s what you’re calling your  _wonder drug_?” Before the end the word ‘drug’, she had completely lost her battle with seriousness and had descended into full-blown giggles.

“It pierces the cell walls  _and_  membranes of both gram positive and gram negative bacteria from the  _inside_  and I haven’t found any resistant strains yet or even one of those damn ABC transporters that can pump it out yet! And there’s the fact that it’s only activated by an enzyme or kinase or something – I haven’t found out what yet – inside bacterial cells that isn’t found in eukaryotes!” Morgana exclaimed. She had obviously given that little speech before.

“Excalibur?” Nikki questioned again, still lost in laughter. “Do you really want your life’s work to be the sonic hedgehog of the next generation?” She closed her eyes and brought her hand up to her mouth as she was rocked by another wave of laughter. “Oh, I can just imagine a doctor offering it as a treatment option now!”

Morgana pouted. “No one was supposed to know. It was just something I called it in my head.”

As her laughter died down, Nikki’s face softened. She reached up to brush her thumb over the flushed flare of Morgana’s cheekbone. “You are absolutely adorable, and I mean that in the most honest, nicest way possible.” The flush of Morgana’s cheek darkened. “Come here,” Nikki commanded, pulling on the back of Morgana’s thighs to bring her down for a kiss. “Your secret’s safe with me,” she whispered between kisses. “But you are going to have to buy me a dress if we’re going to the Ivy.”

Morgana smiled. “Deal,” she murmured against Nikki’s lips.

~*~

Nikki woke early the next morning to a silence broken only by the soft, deep breathing of the woman beside her. For minutes she just stared at Morgana, watching as the covers shifted gently around her with every breath. It was the first chance she had had to just look at her. Her hair really was as black as ebony and Nikki knew from experience that is was a soft as silk. Beside it, her skin looked almost pure white, only occasionally coloured pink by heat or touch. Insecurity had made both of them leave their makeup on overnight and the dark eyeliner that always traced the edges of Morgana’s eyes had smudged and lightened during the night. The usually almost burgundy shade of her lips had been worn to a more natural, pinker shade. She looked so peaceful, so still, so perfect.

Slipping carefully out of the bed, Nikki wrapped her long, dark grey, rippling cardigan around her and crept downstairs. She had only been to the house a dozen or so times before but routine carried her feet towards the bright comforting light of the kitchen.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know anyone else was awake,” Nikki said, stopping in the doorway when her eyes met Gwen’s across the kitchen. “I can go and chuck Harry of the sofa if you want to be alone?”

Gwen smiled, her hands cradled around a steaming cup. “No, it’s fine. Come and sit down. There’s tea in the pot.” She gestured to the small green teapot on the table. “I hope that Leo and Janet won’t mind. I couldn’t sleep,” she said by way of explanation.

“They won’t mind,” Nikki promised, padding across the wooden floor to take the seat opposite Gwen.

“I’m glad that Morgana met you, even if was in the middle of all of this mess,” Gwen said, smiling genuinely. “I’ve never seen her look as happy as she does when she’s around you, at least not for a very long time.”

Nikki blushed and reached for the teapot. “I’ve never really felt what I feel for her before, I don’t really know what to make of it,” she admitted, putting back the teapot and wrapping her hands around her hot cup, enjoying the slight pain. “I – With Harry, it was slow and gradual, I knew it was happening. Now he’s too important to me as a friend to risk anything else. It became safe and lost its spark. But with Morgana...” She smiled, looking up at Gwen. “With Morgana it was instant. She completely threw me off balance the moment I first saw her and everything since then has just made me surer.”

“Like I said,” Gwen said, pausing for a second, “I’m glad she met you. It’s about time she had someone. To tell you the truth, I was worried about her, when I found out that I’m pregnant. She’s so important to Arthur and I, I didn’t want her to feel...” She shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess that I didn’t want her to feel left out, though that probably sounds stupid to you.”

Nikki nodded, understanding. It struck her that Gwen probably was to Morgana what Harry was to her. She had suspected it before but now she was sure. Maybe that was why it felt so easy to be with Morgana, they were both coming out of the same state of limbo into something more tangible, more attainable. Most of all, she realised that the reasons behind it didn’t matter. What mattered was the fluttering in her stomach whenever she thought about Morgana and the way everything else seemed unimportant when they were together. They were fixing each other. “It must be hard, going through all of this with your baby to think of as well.”

“I guess,” Gwen said, her hand going to the slight curve that Arthur and Morgana swore was a bump. “I don’t think I’m going to make my scan today.”

“Your first scan?” Nikki guessed.

Gwen nodded. “It can wait. I was already putting it off until Morgana was home. Arthur and I both wanted her to be there. I’m pretty sure everything’s fine anyway, I felt the baby move for the first time last night after Arthur fell asleep, and it woke me up this morning moving about.” She looked down at where her hand was resting. “I can’t feel it with my hand though. Shouldn’t I be able to by now?”

“How far along are you?”

“Four and a half months, give or take. I don’t really like doctors so...” Gwen trailed off. “Not that I don’t like you!” she said quickly. “I didn’t mean that – what I meant was that I don’t really like hospital doctors.”

Nikki laughed. “Its fine, I get it. I wouldn’t be surprised if you could feel the baby moving by now but sometimes first time mothers take a little longer to notice it.”

“What about from the outside with my hand? I don’t want Arthur to know if he won’t be able to feel it yet,” Gwen said. “He’s now very good at waiting and I don’t want to make it worse for him than it already is.”

“That depends on how much the baby is moving around and on how big it is,” Nikki said. “Sorry I can’t be more helpful; I haven’t really done anything like this for years and I wasn’t really an expert at it anyway. Maybe Harry or Leo would be more helpful.”

“Or you could see if you can feel anything?” Gwen suggested gingerly. “If you don’t want to that’s fine though, I know that it freaks some people out. It’s just that I’ve never felt it before on anyone else so I don’t even know what it feels like.”

“No I – It doesn’t freak me out, I just – Are you sure you want me too?” It felt to Nikki as though she was stealing some kind of pivotal moment that Gwen could have had with Arthur or even Morgana.

Gwen smiled shyly. “If you’re going to be sticking around then I may as well make use of the fact that you’re a doctor. Just don’t tell Arthur.”

“I won’t,” Nikki promised, abandoning her tea and moving to the chair closest to Gwen. She tried to convince herself that this wasn’t weird, to slip into professional mode, but she couldn’t.

“Or Morgana,” Gwen added as she took Nikki’s hand and held it flat to her stomach. Okay, so it was definitely a bump now, even she had to admit it. She was quickly making her way up the jean sizes, utterly refusing to even enter the maternity section.

Nikki jumped when she felt a gentle pressure against her palm.

“You felt that?” Gwen asked hopefully.

Smiling in wonder, Nikki nodded slowly, her eyes fixed on her hand. “I think so. Wow, I’d forgotten how amazing that feels. I did a couple of months in a maternity unit shadowing one of my university professors but that was years ago, when I was...” She trailed off when she realised that what she had been about to say to prove how young she was probably around the same age that Gwen was now. She hadn’t really thought about how much younger Morgana was but it must have been seven or eight years at least.

“See, you were underselling yourself. You’re far better at this than I am. I have no idea what’s going on half the time and Arthur isn’t much help. He just gets scared and phones Morgana. I don’t think he’ll ever grow out of his reliance on her, not that I really want him to.” Gwen moved Nikki’s hand lower, following the movement.

“Are you going to tell him when he wakes up?” Nikki asked, flexing her fingers slightly when she felt it again.

“Tell me what?” Arthur asked, clumsily walking into the kitchen whilst yawning and rubbing his eyes.

Gwen stood up quickly, grinning. “I felt the baby move.”

Neither Gwen nor Arthur noticed that Nikki quietly slipped from the room and snuck back upstairs.

~*~

A dark blue Audi pulled to a slow stop at the curb of a quietly suburban street. The windows were tinted dark and a sign proclaiming that the car was from “Heathrow Hire” had been wrenched from below the rear number plate. Engine still running, cigarette smoke billowed out of the small gap at the top of the window. Behind the smoke, two bright blue eyes peered out at the house, narrowing when the curtains in the front bedroom were tugged open. A cigarette butt was flicked out, followed by a fresh cloud of thick smoke.

Blue Eyes watched as a lithe blonde wrapped in a long dark cardigan appeared on the doorway. As she bent down to pick up the bottle of milk, a second woman appeared, slightly taller, hair jet black. She wrapped her arms around the blonde’s waist and giggled into her neck when she almost dropped the bottle.

“Bingo.” A thick male voice slipped from the car.

 


	14. Chapter 14

For Harry, the morning had come far too soon. Being as tall as he was, sleeping on a sofa had been a decidedly uncomfortable experience. He had eventually managed to fall asleep but it had been one of those nights in which you seemed to wake up to see every hour passing by on the clock. Preparing himself for light the like of which his eyes might very well explode at, he opened them a sliver. Hissing in pain, he quickly shut them again firmly as the sun shot red hot pain through his already pounding head. He felt as though he had emptied a bar of alcohol the night before, though he had barely touched a drop and that had only been because Arthur had and Harry was trying to be friendly. Okay, so maybe he had enjoyed the feel of the bourbon – _not_  his drink of choice – spreading through his body and dilating his vessels. This, though, was an unfair retaliation on the part of his body.

Taking another chance, he brought his hand up to shade his eyes and opened then again, gingerly.

Leo’s living room slowly swam into focus as the noise and smell of people in the kitchen having breakfast filtered into his awareness. Coffee, he could smell coffee. Sweet, sweet life giving coffee.

“I did not say that,” he heard Leo protest emphatically down the hall. His denial was followed by laughing and Janet’s assertion that he most definitely had said it, whatever  _it_  was.

“I bet you’re full of cheesy chat up lines,” Nikki laughed, giving Harry a clue that they were probably talking about Leo and Janet’s first date. He had already heard the story and Nikki had too, so this was clearly for the benefit of the others. Maybe it was to lighten the mood.

“Oh, he is,” Janet assured with an inflection of affection. She had been good for Leo,  _really_  good.

Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, Harry swung his legs over the side of the sofa and pushed onto his feet. His sleep addled brain couldn’t quite recall the route to the kitchen but following the bitter smell of the morning brew was easy enough. He had never read anything in journal about hangovers – not, he maintained, that it was a hangover – affecting the other senses but he knew as well as anyone how painfully keen it seemed to make your light and sound detection.

It was evident from the bustlingly busy dining table that he was the last one to wake up. He felt as though he was at a bed and breakfast and was late to the morning meal, something he had been severely admonished for by scary old ladies in the past. Thankfully, everyone in the kitchen was too young to be truly scary. Well, maybe apart from Leo. And Nikki could be scary enough when she wanted to be. Janet too now he came to think about it.

“Morning Harry, sleep well?” Leo asked brightly, a steaming cafetiere in his hand. He was far too chipper for that early in the morning. “Coffee?”

Not feeling capable of communicating verbally just yet, Harry nodded and rubbed his eyes again. Since when had the sun gotten so bright and the kettle so loud? Toast jumped up from the toaster and added to the chorus of pain.

“The sofa not up to your usual standards?” Nikki teased. Like the others, she was dressed for the new day. She was wearing the top that he really liked, the blue one that she kept in the overnight bag in her boot. It hugged in all the right places and dipped just that bit lower than her usual tops did. Morgana seemed to have noticed too. That was probably why Nikki had chosen it in favour of the overly large jumper she also kept in that bag.

Ignoring the twinge of jealousy he felt, he took the cup Leo was holding out to his and enjoyed the almost painful heat it gave off in his hands. Taking a sip, he sighed. The heat was even better slipping down his throat. “That’s better.”

“Harry is addicted to caffeine,” Nikki said lightly, looking beside her to Morgana who was cradling her own cup of jet black liquid. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t quite manage to dislike the Irish microbiologist. He supposed it was because they were quite alike when you started thinking about it. They even seemed to share the same heart fluttering longing for Nikki. He could swear that, watching her look at his friend, she was in love with her already.

“Wise man,” Morgana smiled, meeting her eyes. They had an understanding, though they had never talked about it, that they would try to be friends, real friends, for Nikki’s sake. It would be so easy for him to feel jealous of her and for her to feel threatened by him.

Piercing the silence that had settled over the kitchen, a tinny rendition of Für Elise burst from the mobile tucked in Harry’s pocket. He pulled it out and flipped it open. “Hello.” His eyes went unreadably wide. “He is?” A pause. He fiddled with the hem of his shirt. “And you’re sure?” He exhaled deeply and his eyes fell on Morgana. “I’m looking at her.” He snorted. “Yes, I’m sure.” Rolling his eyes, he put his hand to the microphone and asked Morgana, “Are you here?”

“Err... Yes.” She looked confused.

He relayed the message before pausing to get the caller’s answer. “Were you here all night?” he asked Morgana. “Not me asking.”

 “Harry, who is it?” Nikki asked, frowning.

“All night,” Morgana confirmed.

“Who is it?” Nikki asked again, clearly dissatisfied that she hadn’t gotten an answer yet.

Ignoring her, Harry brought the phone back to his ear. “Yes, she was here all night.” He pulled it away again. “Can anyone corroborate that?” he asked the room, half heartedly.

“You know I can,” Nikki said, blushing slightly. “Is it Anderson?”

Nodding, Harry went back to the phone. “Dr. Alexander can confirm, is that good enough for you?” He scoffed. “I am  _not_  asking her that, you’re just going to have to use your imagination.”

Huffing in annoyance, Nikki got to her feet, snatched the phone from Harry and walked out of the open patio door. “Alright detective, what do you want to know?” She shut the door behind her, muffling her increasingly heated conversation.

“I almost pity him,” Harry quipped. “Almost.”

“What did he say?” Gwen asked. Harry had almost forgotten that she and Arthur were there.

“Emrys is in the country. He’s been here over two months,” Harry said, taking another sip of his quickly cooling coffee.

“It’s him then,” Arthur said, more to himself than to anyone else. “I’ll kill him.”

“No you won’t,” Gwen said, shooting him a look that wouldn’t be out of place on a primary school teacher’s face. “I’ve had enough of police and courts with your sister, I don’t need it from you too.”

“I’d have to make your life hell if you did something so stupid,” Morgana cautioned. Her expression was sufficient for everyone to hear the silent:   _especially now Gwen’s pregnant_.

“Morgana, he killed Dad and set fire to your house. He set you up for murder!” Arthur protested, not raising his voice but lowering the pitch instead.  “Do you really expect me to just sit back and do nothing? What if he went after Gwen?”

Harry let the argument fade into the background as he walked to the patio doors. He understood Arthur’s frustration. If anyone tried to hurt Nikki then he would... Well, he didn’t know what he would do, but it would be a good deal more that the law would allow. Frowning, he peered around the garden. It was empty. A low, cold feeling stirred in his stomach.

Taking a steadying breath, he asked. “Leo, does the garden go around the side?”

“No, there’s a wall. Only the corner houses have side gardens. We do have a quite large front one though,” Leo said conversationally.

“All you have out back then, is what you can see from here?”  The cold feeling grew.

“Yeah, though there is some communal ground out the back gate. They were supposed to build a children’s playground but the council cut the funding.”

Harry’s eyes went to the gate nestled in the far corner of the ivy covered wall. It was open. The cold feeling solidified into ice.

All at once, before he could say a word, Morgana was at his shoulder, following his eye line to the open gate. She could feel it too, he was certain. Nikki hadn’t just wandered outside the garden.

They shared a scared look before as one pushing open the door and making for the gate at a run.

“Harry, what is it?” Leo called. They didn’t stop.

The land out back may have been communal, but it wasn’t often used, at least not by people who owned lawn mowers. Young bendy trees filled the spaces between the old birches and oaks, making it impossible to see how far back the greenery went. Two paths had been trodden through the land, forking off in opposite directions. Somewhere at the back of his mind, Harry recalled that they were termed desire lines, though that wasn’t important.

They didn’t need to talk to decide that each of them would take a different path.

Morgana went left, taking the less defined of the two paths. She was still running, adrenaline making it easy to sustain her pace as she thundered past bushes and trees. Her eyes shot from side to side, looking for a flash of anything that wasn’t green or brown. The path wound through the overgrown land, twisting and turning with no rhyme or reason. Brambles pulled at her clothes and scratched at her skin, but she felt nothing. Her breath echoed in her ears, slow and ragged. Every sound was louder, every colour dull. It was almost like the word passing by her was a dream, one dream in particular.

_The dream was one she had had since she was a child. She was lost, running through the forest in nothing but her white cotton Confirmation dress. Her shoes were gone – she didn’t know where – and the ground beneath her feet was cold and damp. Blood speckled her dress, though whether it was hers or someone else’s she didn’t know. Tears dampened her cheeks as the trees began to thin and she saw sunlight breaking through. But when she broke free of the tree line, what she saw stopped her dead in her tracks. She was in a graveyard. The headstones around her were old and unkempt. Moss crawled over the worn names, grey and mottled, obscuring them from view. A noise behind her made her start and she jolted back into a run, slipping and faltering on the uneven ground._

Shaking her head, she tried to break through the memory.

_“Mummy!” she cried, now following a winding path that climbed steadily uphill. Through an arch she ran, stumbling over loose rocks into ruin of a church. She span on the spot as tumbled down walls loomed around her._

_“Hello, Morgana.”_

_What she saw when she turned made her scream in fear._

The sharp pain of branches slicing across her arm brought her back to the present.

Within minutes she reached the end of the trees and the land opened up into a rolling field that fell away to a log-lined car park that was deserted except for a dark Audi, one that she had seen before. Her mind flashed back to earlier that morning when she hadn’t been able to resist following Nikki out to retrieve the milk. The car had been there then, across the road, she was sure of it.

“Nikki!

~*~

Everything hurt.

Pain pulsed in her leg, her back stung with a hundred thousand pinpricks and her head felt as though it was full to bursting with lead. Taking a shallow breath, she took in the sweet smell of fresh dirt, crumbly and moist under her fingertips.

It was dark, as dark as night was with only a sliver of a new moon to light it. She was slumped against a wall – metal, maybe steel – with a matching one rising no more than four feet away. Above her, the ceiling that matched the walls, though, being closer, she could see that it was painted a somewhat dull yellow.

Another breath and she tried to move her leg. White hot pain flashed behind her eyelids and everything became impossibly blacker.

When she came around again, faint sunlight was filtering in from somewhere above.

“Hey,” Nikki whispered, sat against the opposite wall. Morgana was sure that she hadn’t been there before. “You look terrible.” So did she.

“Thanks,” Morgana croaked. “What happened?”

“Emrys, I think,” Nikki said. “He spoke with an American accent.”

Morgana nodded, closing her eyes again as agony rose within her like a swelling tide. “Did he hurt you?”

“No, not really. Not as much as he’s hurt you,” Nikki said, sounding concerned, guilty, even.

“I’ll be fine,” Morgana lied. Pain radiated through every fibre of her being. She had never felt anything like it. She was most definitely not going to fine any time soon.

“I – I didn’t see what he did to you. Are you-”

“I’m okay,” Morgana insisted. She couldn’t remember what he had done to her, she didn’t know. “A few broken bones, maybe. That’s it.” She heard scuffling and a sharp intake of breath and opened her eyes to see Nikki moving towards her. “What are you doing?” she asked, though she ached to have Nikki nearer.

“Checking you over,” Nikki said resolutely, it was clear that she would not be deterred. She was crouched before Morgana, hands hovering in mid air as if she was afraid to touch her. “What hurts the most?”

“My pride.”

Laughing slightly, Nikki touched her arm gently. “Physically speaking.”

“You should have been more specific,” Morgana joked, quickly losing her smile when a fresh wave of pain washed over her. “Right leg. I think my fibula is broken.”

“Okay,” Nikki decided, “I’ll leave it ‘til last.” She met Morgana’s eyes and smiled sadly. “I’ll be careful, I promise.” Hesitantly, she ran her hands down each arm in turn, moving at the joints and feeling for anything beyond a bruise. Next she skirted over Morgana’s collar bone and down her sides, at which point Morgana yelped in pain. “Alright, alright,” she soothed. “I’m going to keep checking, okay?”

Morgana nodded, her eyes tightly shut and her head back against the wall, bracing herself. “Ah!” she cried a second later when Nikki touched the upper right side of her abdomen. “There,” she gasped.

When Morgana opened her eyes she saw that Nikki’s face had drained of colour and that her eyes were pinched with worry.

“My liver,” Morgana whispered. “Looks like it’ll be the hospital for me when we get out of here.”

“I’m afraid, I think you’re right,” Nikki said. “Oh, Morgana, what  _did_  he do to you?”

“Just – Just check my leg. Please. I don’t think I can move without blacking out again.”

“Then I’m not touching it,” Nikki said determinedly. “It isn’t broken the skin. Does it feel tight or tingly?”

“No,” Morgana said. “Nothing like that, just hurts. It doesn’t feel like a compression fracture, not that I’m ever had one before.”

Frustrated that there was nothing she could do whilst they were trapped, Nikki reached forward and brushed the dirt from Morgana’s cheek. “I’m so sorry,” she murmured as Morgana leaned into her touch. It took her breath away how beautiful she looked, even after all that Emrys had done to her. “You shouldn’t have come after me.”

Morgana turned to her sharply, ignoring the pain that she felt at the sudden movement. “Don’t you dare think this is your fault! It’s only because of me that he...”

“Hush, you’re as much an innocent in this as I am,” Nikki insisted. She wanted to kiss her  _so much,_  but she was too afraid of hurting her. It was like nothing she had ever felt, loving – and it was  _loving_ , seeing her like this she knew that for certain – someone so fragile, so breakable, yet so strong. “You know, it was quite dashing, you coming to my rescue like that. A little stupid perhaps, but dashing all the same.”

“It wasn’t much of a rescue. At least Harry didn’t get himself knocked out and stuffed into a car boot.”

“Yes, well, Harry wouldn’t fit,” Nikki joked. “I mean it Morgana. If you hadn’t... If you hadn’t come then I would have been alone with him. You came after me and because of that you’re the one who has gotten hurt. I don’t know what I can do to thank you for that.”

“Kiss me,” Morgana beseeched.

Nikki’s stomach flipped over with excitement and anticipation and maybe even love. Leaning forward, she kissed her gently, falling deeper into the kiss when Morgana let her mouth fall pliantly open. The kiss was longer and far more intense than Nikki had intended but she couldn’t pull away, not when there was so much of Morgana to fall into and loose herself in. It was like breathing cool air on a scorching day.

“This sounds stupid,” Nikki panted, still so close to her that their noses touched. “I barely know you, but I’ve fallen for you so deeply Morgana Lafferty. This may be the craziest two months of my life and we may have been kidnapped by a crazy American with a grudge against your stepfather, but I love you and I can’t regret a single moment of it.”

“Nikki...”

“It’s okay,” Nikki interrupted. “You don’t have to say it back. I know its way too fast and I’m pretty sure that I’m falling headfirst into some kind of stereotype, but I need you to know that I love you. Whatever happens, I love you.”

With a gently insistent hand to the back of her neck, Morgana pulled her closer and kissed her.”Of course I love you. It may not quite have been ‘love at first sight’ but the moment I saw you in that bar, I knew. You’re so beautiful... and smart, funny, sweet, warm, intelligent, kind and  _beautiful_.”

Nikki laughed, pulling her hand from Morgana’s to wipe away her tears. No one had ever said anything like that to her before, so simple but heartfelt. “I think you’ve done it before, this whole girly-declaration-of-love thing.”

“No,” Morgana said honestly, “I haven’t.”

“I love you,” Nikki said again, cupping Morgana’s cheek.

“I love you too,” Morgana swore.

And for a moment, no matter where they were, Nikki thought her heart might just burst.


	15. Chapter 15

The interview room was cold and white, like a not-quite-right imitation of a futuristic sci-fi film. A single bright light hung from the centre of the ceiling, radiating an almost blue light that seemed to sap all saturation from the room. The tiles were so highly polished that they reflected like mirrors, thousands of split and distorted images of the man at the table. He was sat, wringing his hands together atop the table, clenching until his short nails dug into the back of his hands to give him enough pain to quench the need to lunge out. Over and over again, he repeated what he had seen – what he had  _not_  seen – and yet still they asked him the same questions.

“And when did you come out into the open field?”

“I told you,” Harry said shortly. “I don’t know.”

“Come on Dr. Cunningham, think!” Anderson had been taken from the case after Nikki and Morgana had gone missing and now Harry was facing the Chief Superintendent, a man for whom sensitivity was blasphemy. Harry felt no guilt for his relief that Morgana had been taken too. As it turned out, Uther Pendragon’s will had split the company equally between his son and step-daughter, making Morgana worth a considerable amount. Pendragon Industries had almost single-handedly kept the economy from entering a second recession after its two main competitors in the pharmaceutical industry closed their main UK bases. In other words, Morgana being missing got the very best the Met had to offer and some then some.

“I was running, scared, the last thing on my mind was checking my watch,” Harry bit, banging his fist on the table.

“Guess.” He was pacing opposite Harry, trying to make him feel ill at ease. Harry didn’t need any help in that department.

“I don’t know!”

“Guess!”

“Five minutes from when I left the house,” Harry estimated, “maybe.”

“And how long was it after you left Miss Lafferty alone?” The Chief Superintendent’s tone was accusatory.

“If you are trying to blame me for this then you obviously haven’t met Morgana. We split up safe in the knowledge that the other was capable.”  Harry sat back in his chair.

“More capable than Dr. Alexander?” Now he sounded almost amused.

“Yes!”

“Well then, it seems that your estimations are not entirely reliable.”  He stopped and leant forward, his arms supporting him above the table. They had found a rag drenched in chloroform at the scene – not original, but effective. “Are you sure it was only five minutes until you reached the field?”

“No, I told you I wasn’t.” Harry was wringing his hands again. “Shouldn’t you be out there looking for them or are you more of behind-a-desk sort of bloke?”

“Let the record show that Dr. Cunningham’s remark be expunged from the record in the light of his obvious emotional distress.”

Harry scoffed.

“Now, what did you see when you got to the field?” The Chief Superintendent pulled out the only other chair around the table and sat.

“I saw a dark saloon car pulling away.” Harry said automatically, he had been asked the question at least twice before.

“And at that point you had no reason to suspect that that car contained Miss Lafferty and Dr. Alexander?”

“No.”

“As you still don’t.” This was the point in the conversation that riled Harry the most, no matter how many times they went round it.

“They were, I know they were,” Harry insisted.

“And how exactly do you know this? Is there something you need to tell me doctor?”

Digging his nails into palm, Harry closed his eyes and took a calming breath. “Either you get my lawyer here or let me go. The choice is yours. I’ve told you everything.”

Evidently, the Chief Superintendent did not like lawyers. Within five minutes, Harry was walking back into reception to find Leo and Janet standing protectively either side of Gwen’s chair.

“Where’s Arthur?” he asked, coming to a stop in the middle of the open area. His hands were stuffed in his trouser pockets to hide the marks of his frustration, he didn’t need the looks of pity that would come with people seeing them.

“Get off me, I can walk by myself!” Arthur came barrelling out of the door to Harry’s right, shaking off a scared looking junior PC.

“Arthur,” Gwen sighed automatically. It seemed to her that she had spent half her life breathing the names of Arthur and his sister in an exasperated tone. A fiery temper ran in the family but thankfully so did the tendency to calm when Gwen bid it. She would give anything to berate Morgana like that again. “What did they say?” Oh God, she was going to cry again.

“It’ll be alright,” Arthur said, losing his ire and moving swiftly to cradle Gwen’s head to his chest. He couldn’t stand to see her cry. “I promise.” He looked back at Harry. “We’ll find them.”

As little as they had had in common before, now they had a common goal.

~*~

After waking up to near absolute darkness twice already, you would think that the soul-strangling feeling would fade. It didn’t. Just as before, the walls were solid around her, and the only light came in tiny too-pale squares from an airbrick above. It was the most hope-sapping place in existence and for almost twenty-four hours it had been Morgana’s entire world. The only redeeming feature it could boast was the woman Morgana would give anything not to be there.

Each solid breath she took was followed quickly by chest-constricting coughs. The pain was almost enough to make her consider not breathing at all. Almost.

“Try breathing shallower,” Nikki suggested, her voice coarse from lack of water.

Morgan would have laughed if it wouldn’t have hurt so much. “Very funny. If I breathed any shallower, I wouldn’t be breathing,” she whispered. Whispering was easier than breathing – small mercies.

“And we wouldn’t want that.” Nikki smiled. They were sat side by side now, Morgana leaning against her, weak from her injuries. She had protested at first when Nikki has suggested it but when night took their only source of light, she had let Nikki put her arm around her and before long had sagged against the pathologist’s side.

“If you’re going to be like that then I won’t come to the rescue next time.” Another fit of coughs doubled her over. Taking the deepest breath she could, she rested her forehead on her knees.

“My knight in shining armour. Though, since you almost exclusively wear black, maybe black knight would be more appropriate,” Nikki said, rubbing her hand in circles on Morgana’s back. The usually taut muscles there were soft and yielded beneath her fingers.

“The black knight was always my favourite at Camelot Theme Park when I was a kid. Everyone else wanted their picture with the white knight. I was the only one who wanted one with him,” Morgana whispered shakily, still bent forwards.

“Oh dear, you’re young enough to have been to Camelot as a child,” Nikki sighed, her amused tone undercut with sadness. As much as she wanted to make light of the situation, she couldn’t. “Come here,” she commanded softly, urging Morgana back. “You can tell me all about your rebellious childhood leanings when we get out of here.”

Morgana turned her head into Nikki’s neck and took a broken breath. With every breath her lungs expanded less. She knew that she must be bleeding into her abdominal cavity; she could feel the pressure against her diaphragm. There was something incredibly exasperating about knowing just enough to know that you were in serious trouble but lacking the practical knowledge to know exactly what that meant. “How long do you think I have until I...” She couldn’t say it out loud.  “Be honest.”

“I don’t know,” Nikki said quietly, turning into Morgana’s hair and breathing in the sweet smell of her own lemon shampoo. It had been in her overnight bag and Morgana had been desperate for a shower that morning (yesterday morning?). Nikki would have joined her if she hadn’t bumped into Harry in the hall.

“Yes you do.”

“We need help to come soon, very soon,” Nikki said, barely able to stop her voice breaking. It was too dark for Morgana to see that she was crying, so she didn’t try to stop. “But they will, _I promise_.”

~*~

Harry felt sick to the pit of his stomach. They had nothing to go on, absolutely nothing. After the police station they had gathered around Leo’s table to regroup and plan but they were no closer to finding Morgana and Nikki than when they started.

“What about an old factory?” Arthur suggested, pointing at brown shaded square on the large map spread out in front of them. “This one used to be a packaging factory. It’s been abandoned for five years at least. There was a fire.”

Janet shook her head. “It’s over an hour away in traffic, he wouldn’t risk going that far. Wherever he has them is more likely to be within half an hour of the abduction site. He will want to be far enough away that he doesn’t feel threatened by us but the longer the journey, the higher the risk of something going wrong like being stopped by the police or the chloroform wearing off.”

Leo took a pen from the stationary cup holding down one corner of the map and marked a rough circle with the house as the epicentre. “It takes half an hour to get to the library straight down the A road, so everything within this circle is definitely less than thirty minutes away.”

“I would think that he would choose somewhere along the same lines as the factory but smaller, easier to control,” Janet offered. “He’s shown us that he can plan – the way he killed was controlled and intelligent – so he will have chosen somewhere carefully, possibly with significance to either him or the Pendragon family.”

Gwen leant forward to look at the map for the first time, her bottom lip trapped between her teeth. What she had been looking for was indeed within the circle but it would be far too much of a coincidence. There was no way that he could know about it, no one knew except Morgana. “My father’s garage, it’s empty.”

Everyone turned to her.

“I thought the garage was sold last year after your father’s will came through?” Arthur said, finding it on the map. “Your brother made you sell it so he could take off with his half, didn’t he?”

Gwen nodded slowly. “Morgana bought it for me.”

Arthur frowned. “When? Why don’t I know about this?”

Gwen didn’t say anything, just took the pen from Leo and ringed it on the it on the map.

“If you really wanted it, you should have asked me to buy it for you, not her,” Arthur said, trying and failing not to sound annoyed. He couldn’t help the occasional spark of jealousy that Morgana knew Gwen better than him.

“She bought it at the auction, she knew how much it means to me. I didn’t have to ask her.” Okay, so that might have been a bit of a low blow but Morgana had been kidnapped and Gwen was beside herself. She hadn’t told him about the garage because of what happened when Morgana brought her there and surprised her with the deeds. In four years with Arthur she had only cheated once and it had been on that day, in the garage, with his sister. Morgana had just looked so... Morgana in her too-big Smith’s t-shirt and tight black jeans. Gwen hadn’t been able to resist kissing her, she hadn’t wanted to resist, especially because Morgana hadn’t expected anything. She looked so confused when Gwen kissed her. It had all been her fault; she initiated it knowing that Morgana wouldn’t be able to stop it. She knew that Morgana’s feelings had never changed and the garage was where they had first kissed in freshers week.

They did more than kiss that day one year ago and the guilt had kept her from telling Arthur, in case he found out about what she and Morgana had done. But now, with Morgana missing, the guilt had turned to possessiveness over their last time together. She didn’t want anyone to know, she wanted to keep that memory for only the two of them, so that she could close her eyes and remember when her heart panged for Morgana. She loved Arthur completely and utterly but Morgana was her first love. There would always be a part of her loved that Morgana that way, even though she would never leave Arthur.

“It was a surprise. She gave it to me for the anniversary of our graduation,” Gwen said, pushing down the memories. Arthur was still staring at her, waiting for an explanation that he wasn’t going to help. “I haven’t been there since your father died.”

The tension in the room was unbearably think with Gwen looking at her hands in her lap and Arthur watching with an unreadable expression. Harry couldn’t help but wonder if things between Arthur, Gwen and Morgana weren’t quite as simple as they first seemed. But now wasn’t the time to test relationship dynamics.

“Arthur, do you know how to get there?” Harry asked.

Arthur nodded, his gaze still on his wife.

“Then let’s go.”

~*~

“How do you feel?” Nikki asked tentatively. Another three hours had passed and Morgana had barely moved. Nikki hoped she had drifted back to sleep.

“No worse,” Morgana whispered hoarsely. She was awake.

Pressing a kiss to the crown of Morgana’s head, Nikki murmured, “I wish I could help. I feel so useless.”

 Tightening her grip on Nikki’s arm, Morgana promised, “You are helping.” Wincing, she dragged herself up until she could look Nikki in the eye. “Its selfish and I know I shouldn’t say it, but I’m glad you’re here.  _It helps_.”

Smiling, Nikki brushed the dust from Morgana’s cheek. “And as clichéd and really-not-me as this sounds, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else in the world.” Her eyes fluttered closed as she kissed Morgana gently. “What have you done to me? I’m not acting like myself at all.”

“Me? You’re the one who has got my heart beating in a way that it hasn’t done since I was a teenager,” Morgana whispered, kissing her again.

Nikki laughed, a tear running down her cheek. “And how long ago was that?”

“Six years,” Morgana breathed. “And three quarters.”

“You still count the quarters. I  _really_  shouldn’t be doing this,” Nikki chuckled, feeling her stomach sink at how weak Morgana’s grip on her arm was. “You are far, far too young for me. Harry’s never going to stop teasing me when he finds out how young you are; payback for all the years I teased him.”

Morgana turned her head to the side and coughed, letting her head fall forward to lean against the wall over Nikki’s shoulder. The tightness in her chest wasn’t worsening but the point at which it had reached a plateau was already agony. She could hear the blood pounding in her ears getting slower like a clock ticking down. It was probably her imagination, she knew that, but the longer she listened, the more sure she was that she was right. As she took a shallow breath, a familiar smell drifted into her awareness, faint, as if far away. Familiar as it was, she couldn’t pin down its identity. It reminded her of Gwen, but why, she did not know.

 “Is it easier like this?” Nikki asked, listening to Morgana’s breathing even out. She brought her hand back up to Morgana’s back, applying gently pressure to between her shoulders to steady her.

“The pressure,” Morgana murmured, eyes closed in relief, “the pressure eases.” The feeling was something akin to what she imagined having a tight corset slowly loosened would feel like. Gradually, the heaviness over her heart moved to pool low in her stomach, allowing her lungs to expand an inch further.

“Are you... comfortable?” Nikki asked cautiously. Last time she had asked the question, Morgana had been overcome by a wave of pride and insisted that she could support herself. It was a lie and they both knew it, bringing them dangerously close to an argument. Nikki had experience with proud lovers who wouldn’t admit when they needed help, so she knew how to deal with it. Morgana was no different to any of her previous boyfriends and responded by stealthily leaning against Nikki after ten minutes of silence, like she thought Nikki wouldn’t notice. Maybe it was young impertinence or it might have just been her personality, but whatever it was, Nikki ended up finding it half way between adorable and incredibly alluring. She could imagine Morgana as a black night, all dark and mysterious with a timeless look in her eye and a fiercely guarded vulnerable heart. Not evil like some medieval pantomime but a protagonist perhaps. Or maybe not that either. That sounded far too close to Emily Brontë and Nikki had never really understood the appeal of Heathcliff. “And don’t say yes just because you are proud.”

Morgana snorted. “You know me far too well. It usually takes at least a couple of months for me to get the ‘don’t be proud’ reprimand.”

“And how many times have you made it that far?” Nikki asked, not liking at all that it mattered to her. It had never bothered her with anyone in the past so why should it with Morgana? Why did she have that stomach clenching feeling? It wasn’t like she could very well expect Morgana to have lived like a nun. She had been through her share relationships herself, most of which had been extremely ill matched and had ended in disaster. Most though, had ended when her date had discovered her job title. No one liked that thought of dating a pathologist.

“Less times than I would like,” Morgana answered honestly, letting more of her weight rest against Nikki. “What about you? I seem to be the only one answering questions.”

“Not so fast, you still haven’t said whether you are comfortable or not.” Nikki turned her head to the side. She couldn’t see Morgana, her face was obscured by her dark hair.

“If you keep your hand there, on my back, I’m okay,” Morgana sighed, “though I feel ridiculous.”

Relief washed over Nikki. “Well that’s okay because no one can see us. Just relax.”

But some could see them. In the far corner, a camera with a blinking faint red light went unnoticed. Emrys had been watching them from the beginning. Watching as they kissed and held each other and even when they had spilled their hearts out. He had been intending to want for Arthur to fall into his trap, but there were far more fun things he could be doing with Nikki while he waited, things that would break Morgana’s heart. And any way he could hurt her was a bonus.


	16. Chapter 16

Logically, if you are told something enough times by enough people, you would think that you would start to believe it. Harry was not a great advocate of this particular strain of logic. Over the years, many people, mainly women, had told him that he was a bit of an overenthusiastic driver. Mostly, this person was Nikki. He had spent the years since he had first made the mistake of giving her a lift, on the foul end of an endless barrage of jokes surrounding his fondness of the accelerator. Despite this, he didn’t actually believe he was a bad driver and he didn’t think that Nikki did either, not really. All of this had been confirmed when he made the mistake of letting Arthur Pendragon behind the wheel. Compared to Arthur, he was an  _excellent_  driver.

The atmosphere in the car was tense to say the least. Ever since Gwen had mentioned the garage, Arthur had been wound tight, like he might snap any second.

    
“I know that I don’t know you or Gwen or even Morgana –”

  
“No, you don’t,” Arthur said tersely, his grip on the wheel vice-like.

  
“– but you don’t know what happened or didn’t happen, not yet,” Harry finished.

  
Arthur laughed humourlessly. “Morgana has something with Gwen that I’ll never be able to touch. Their connection goes deeper than I can touch. Morgana always knows what’s going on in Gwen’s mind. If it wasn’t for her giving me the heads up on it, I’d never have a clue.”

  
To Harry, that sounded simple enough. “If she helps you, then why are you worrying?”

  
“Because I’m Gwen’s husband! I’m supposed to be the one who knows her better than anyone else, not my sister!” Arthur shouted, cranking the tension in the car up a notch and unconsciously increasing the pressure of his foot against the accelerator.

  
“Morgana is Gwen’s best friend, just like Nikki is mine. She has known Gwen longer than you, been through more with her,” Harry looked out the window, wishing he had never made the comparison with Nikki and him. “That doesn’t mean that Gwen loves her more than you.” 

  
The car slowed down, which is to say, not slow but the same speed that it was before Arthur's outburst. 

  
“How do you do it?” Arthur asked, sounding calmer, marginally.

  
Harry knew what he meant but he asked anyway, “Do what?”

  
“Be so close to Nikki, feel the way you do about her and not do anything about it.”

  
Harry tore his eyes from the window and returned to the claustrophobic darkness of Arthur’s car. “I was too scared to be with her when she was free, so now I have to deal with the consequences. I love her too much to risk her happiness.”

  
“When Gwen left Morgana, she was devastated. She didn’t even know that there was anything wrong with the relationship. They fought, but they had done that for four years already. No argument that I know of lasted more than a few hours. I can’t help but think that one day that will happen to us. Morgana and I aren’t so different,” Arthur confided. “Not that I know why I’m telling you this. As you said, we don’t even know each other.”

  
“Gwen married you. I think that makes it different.” Harry didn’t look at Arthur, that would make this far too much like the kind of conversation that women had with each other. He couldn’t help but feel increasingly awkward. “Morgana is your sister. You can be angry at her later, right now the most important thing is finding her and Nikki.”

  
Arthur wouldn’t say ‘you’re right’, he wasn’t in the mood to be that mature. Though, Harry was clearly right.

~*~

  
By the time that the sky opened up and piercing light-induced agony shot through the dark-accustomed eyes of Nikki Alexander, Morgana had fallen into a sleep that she could not be woken from. The sleep was not fitful and actually seemed almost serene if you worked hard enough to believe it. As she got weaker and the pain got worse, her desire to stay awake retreated and she had consciously closed her eyes. It didn’t feel like giving in.

“Out,” Emrys barked, his harsh American accent coming from a black silhouette of a man. 

Nikki felt like she should protest, but didn’t. Something in her captor’s tone threatened Morgana and with her lying helpless, Nikki couldn’t refuse. Instead, she propped Morgana against the wall to keep her chest elevated and climbed out of the huge hole that had once been the ceiling. When she had been put down there, she had still been under the influence of Emrys’ kidnapping aid, she hadn’t known how she got there or where ‘there’ was.

When she was out, it was obvious what kind of place she was in. It was a garage, one of those old independent ones before Kwik Fit took them all over. Morgana and she had been in the inspection pit – at least that’s what she thought it was called – where mechanics went to work on the underside of cars. What she had thought was an airbrick were the finger holes to lift the stone lid. She didn’t know how Emrys lifted it, it was heavy and he looked scrawny as hell. It was actually a little embarrassing that he had overpowered her, even if he had had surprise and a sedative on his side. Morgana would be mortified if – _when_  – she woke up. 

“What do you want?” Nikki asked, stumbling backwards to put as much space between her and Emrys as she could.

He laughed. “What do you think?” he was smirking.

His hair was black, properly black, like Morgana’s. Only, it didn’t look silky or shiny. It was dull and greasy. That, and the state of his clothes, told her that he hadn’t been looking after himself. Murder and arson could be quite a distraction. 

“Harry. You must have seen him during your spying. He will be here any minute and he won’t be alone,” Nikki said with confidence, though she had none. They could be anywhere.

“Autopsy boy?” Again, Emrys laughed.

“Autopsy implies that it is the dead seeing with their own eyes what has killed them. Post mortem is the more accepted term here. It is our language. We use it right.” She was well aware that it probably wasn’t the time to be picking over Anglo-American nomenclature. Never mind the fact that neither term was particularly English...

“You’re all the same.” His smile dropped. “You know, she didn’t need to get such a beating. Her problem was that she couldn’t keep her  _mouth shut_. I wonder... Will you break sooner? Not that it matters. I’m doing this to mess with her. Whether you break or not doesn’t have anything to do with it. I’ll probably enjoy it more if you don’t.”

Nikki felt sick.

He advanced.

~*~

Two wrong turns and a diversion later, Arthur’s slightly worse for wear Fiat Punto pulled into the lot of a 1970s era garage, complete with an antique petrol pump. Though the surrounding area had declined in the years since Gwen had lived there, the garage seemed impervious to the graffiti and grime. It was like a moment from Gwen’s childhood frozen in time. Harry, had the circumstances been different, might have appreciated that image, but as the handbrake went on, a scream emitted from behind the green barn doors and the only thing that Harry could think of was Nikki.

“How are we playing this?” Arthur asked breathily as the car doors shut with two matching snaps.

“Barrel in with no plan,” Harry suggested, already making for the doors.

“Sounds good to me.”

They burst through the doors in a manner that wouldn’t have looked out of place in an episode of Ashes to Ashes, splintering the wood around the lock and propelling the outward opening doors inward. The first thing that they saw was Nikki, pushed up against the opposite wall with a dirty hand closed around her neck, eyes wide and scared. In truth, Harry didn’t think about Morgana. He didn’t really think of anything other than that hand around Nikki’s neck and how he could stop it. His answer came from nowhere. One second he was running at Emrys with nothing other than his fists, the next, he was swinging a short thick plank of wood at his shoulder, knocking him sideways. Nikki dropped to the floor, her hand at her throat, gasping for air and choking on it.

“Are you alright?” Crouched in front of Nikki, Harry saw from the corner of his eye Arthur no less than drop kick a doubled over Emrys, sending him flying into the wall.

“Where the hell is my sister?” he shouted, picking him up by the throat as Emrys had held Nikki only seconds before. “You have ten seconds before I smash your head into the wall. Think quick.”

“The pit. Down there,” Nikki coughed, bile rising as oxygen flowed back to her brain, making light dance like stars before her eyes.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Arthur punched Emrys in the side of the head with enough force to knock him out.

“You okay?” Harry asked Nikki again, trying to get her to hold her head steady long enough to look into her eyes. “Your pupils are dilated. How long did he have hold of your throat?”

“Find Morgana,” Nikki choked trying to look past Harry to Arthur. “She’s bad. Really bad.”

“Christ. Harry!” Arthur shouted. He had dragged the pit’s lid aside and jumped down into it. “I need you over here.”

Harry got to his feet, tossing his phone down to Nikki. “Phone for an ambulance and the police. Can you do that?”

Nikki nodded and fumbled to hit the 9 three times.

“Shit,” Harry swore under his breath, dropping down beside Arthur and lifting Morgana’s chin. “Morgana, can you hear me?” There was no response.

~*~

To say that the wait for the ambulance seemed like an eternity, was to embellish eternity. Two doctors with no equipment in a vacant garage were about as much help to someone bleeding internally as some Blu-Tack and a piece of string. In the real world, there was nothing they could do to help her, no miracle they could pull out of an abandoned toolbox. They could try to relieve the pressure but realistically, all that would do was make things worse.  
Nikki couldn’t look at Morgana, slumped against the wall with all colour drained from her face – her lips as pale as her skin instead of their usual pink flush. 

Harry was with her, checking her pulse and monitoring her breathing. 

Sat on the splintered wood-covered floor near the doors, Nikki watched silently for the ambulance.

Arthur had his gaze trained on Emrys, like a lion poised to strike at the slightest movement. “How is she?” he asked again. Since the ambulance had been 

called, almost fifteen minutes had already gone, each one passing slower than the one before.

“The same.” 

“What’s her pulse rate?” Nikki asked, speaking for the first time since she had phoned for the ambulance.

“It’s hanging steady at 39 beats per minute.” Harry switched to put his weight on the other foot.

“Is that normal,” Arthur asked, looking at Nikki over his should.

“No,” Nikki said simply, getting to her feet and joining Arthur. She was cradling her right arm. It felt numb and heavy. “That’s about normal for a gold medal winning Olympic athlete.”

Arthur looked over at his sister. “She definitely isn’t that.”

Nikki smiled sadly at Arthur before asking Harry, “What about her ventilation rate?”

“15 breaths per minute; its going up but her breaths are getting shorter.”

Again, Arthur looked to Nikki for a translation. “The pressure that the build-up of blood is putting on her diaphragm is impacting upon her lungs.”

“She’s only taking in around half her normal unstressed lung capacity,” Harry supplied, “but as long as she’s stable...” He trailed off. “Her best chance is getting to hospital whilst she’s still like this.”

“And if she doesn’t?”

“She will,” Nikki said certainly.

~*~

At the hospital, Nikki was taken away and treated for her injuries. Her right arm was broken and she had a gash across her cheek. An ultrasound cleared her of more serious abdominal injuries, but her stomach and sides were bruised and she was sent upstairs to be monitored overnight and wait for a surgeon to close her wound. 

Arthur and Gwen sat on opposite chairs in the corridor outside Morgana’s room, waiting for news. Morgana was still in surgery. It had already been an hour but they were assured that it wasn’t a bad thing. All they could do was wait and hope.

For a long time neither of them said anything, the conversation in Leo’s kitchen was hanging over them like a heavy fog, catching in their lungs.

“How was Nikki,” Gwen asked eventually.

“She’ll live,” Arthur said tightly. He was turning over a coin in his fingers, one he had gotten at Viking history fair he had begged to be taken to about 6 months after his mother had died. Uther was working, as usual, and Arthur had taken the hump, complaining that everyone else from school was going and that he would probably fail his history project because of it. The next weekend, Morgana drove him from London to Chester, where the fair was that weekend. His favourite stall was the coin stall, where you could hit a large press with heavy hammer to mint a copper coin, but you had to be 18 to use it. As hard as he tried, there was no way he could pass for an eighteen year old. So he went and sulked in the car, locking the doors so Morgana couldn’t get in. Half an hour later, Morgana had appeared back the car with a little clear plastic wallet, inside which was a small misshapen coin. All he did was grumble and unlock the door. He got an A on his project.

“Arthur, about the garage-” Gwen began, pulling Arthur from his memory.

“I don’t want to know,” Arthur cut her off, closing his fist around the coin. 

Gwen nodded, staring at the floor between her knees. Looking at her, Arthur’s anger rose.

“You know what, I do,” Arthur decided. “Is that why she did it, to get you into bed?” His eyes were dark and hard. Despite all of his insecurities, he had never truly believed that Morgana could betray him like that. She was his sister; he would have done anything for her.

“No!” Gwen exclaimed. “She wouldn’t! It wasn’t like that at all.”

“But you did sleep with her.” It wasn’t a question.

“Yes,” Gwen admitted, swallowing, “but I initiated it, not her. It was my fault.”

“Did you enjoy it?”

Gwen laughed humourlessly and looked down the empty corridor. If they hadn’t gone private then the place would be swarming with people by now. 

“More than with me?” He wasn’t shouting. It was worse. His voice was low and harsh. What he was asking wasn’t coming in the heat of the moment, he had thought about it over and over. “Well?”

“You can’t compare it,” Gwen sighed. 

Arthur scoffed. “Is she more exciting than me? More adventurous? What?”

Gwen just glared at him. “Leave it.”

“You’re my wife! I will not just ‘leave it’!” Arthur growled. “So answer my question.”

“She’s in the moment,” Gwen snapped. “Her eyes don’t glaze over like she’s somewhere else. She gives you something of herself. She means it.” It was low but she couldn’t believe that he was dragging this up whilst Morgana was fighting for her life. She knew that what they had done was wrong but Morgana could be dying and all he cared about was fighting over something that had happened more than a year ago.

Arthur gave her a dark look, getting up sharply and knocking over his chair before storming off down the corridor, the coin spinning to a stop on the floor where he had dropped it. 

“Shit!” Gwen whispered under her breath, watching as he disappeared around the corner.

“I’ll – err – I’ll come back later.”

Gwen whipped around. “Harry!”

 


	17. Chapter 17

“Harry!” Gwen gasped, desperately trying to think of something to downplay whatever Harry had heard. “That...” she gestured down the corridor that Arthur had just disappeared down. “It wasn’t what you thought it was.” She took a breath. “I mean, it was, but it wasn’t. Morgana and I...”   
  
“None of my business.” Harry held up his hands. He was actually quite certain that it was his business, seeing as Morgana and Nikki were dating – or something – and that Nikki was his best friend. “How’s Morgana?”   
  
“They’re- They’re still operating,” Gwen stuttered her breath catching as her stomach fell through the floor. She didn’t want to think about Morgana on the operating table, cut open with a stranger’s hands inside her. She didn’t want think about the tube in her throat or the foreign blood dripping into her veins. She didn’t want to think that maybe Morgana’s heart might stop beating. She didn’t want to think that every minute that passed by, might be Morgana’s last. “They said they would update us... but we haven’t heard anything yet.”   
  
“Mrs Pendragon?”   
  
As if called into being by Gwen’s words, the surgeon who had briefed them earlier stood before them, seemingly appearing from thin air. He was younger than Gwen would have liked, not much older than herself, but he was clean shaven and well dressed. For some reason, that made her feel better.   
  
“Yes,” Gwen confirmed, standing again, “and this is a friend, Dr Harry...” She realised that she didn’t know his last name.   
  
“Cunningham,” Harry finished for her, shaking the other doctor’s outstretched hand.   
  
“How- How is she?” Gwen’s fingers pulled absently at her sleeve, twisting the material tight before letting it go and starting again.   
  
“The operation went well,” the doctor began. “Your sister-in-law’s injuries were not as serious as it first appeared. We managed to stem the bleeding and repair most of the damage to her vasculature.”   
  
Harry took a step closer to Gwen and nodded to the surgeon to continue. Nikki would expect more than the reassurance that families were usually given.   
  
“She has been incredibly lucky. Her injuries were confined to her liver and her portal vein. She lost a lot of blood but we’re confident that she will make a full, if slow, recovery. She’s on her way down here to her room now. She’s still sedated but you can sit with her if you like.” With a small, emotionless smile he nodded and started back down the corridor to the nurse’s station.    
  
~*~   
  
Nikki sat on the side of her ward bed, her white-socked feet brushing the floor and her grazed hands gripping the edge of the mattress. Her hair was pulled back into a messy plait that failed to keep the tangled strands away from her face.   
  
Leo was sat on the chair next to her bed, trying to distract her with a problem he was having identifying the abrasions on the back of a dead salesman’s neck.   
  
“I thought maybe they were electric burns from a stripped and cut flex – I saw that once before when I was training – but that didn’t fit histologically. I don’t think it could be chemical either, there weren’t enough necrotic cells, barely any, in fact. I just don’t understand it.” He put his hand on her arm. “Nikki?”   
  
She let out a heavy breath and shook her head. “Sorry Leo, what were you saying?”   
  
“Don’t take this the wrong way, Nikki,” he began, frowning, “but I don’t really understand it. It’s just so... out of blue, for lack of a better expression.”   
  
Tearing her eyes away from the wall clock, she looked at colleague, her friend. “I can’t explain it, Leo. I wasn’t expecting it. I certainly wasn’t looking for it. I just... It was so easy, talking to her that night in the bar. She  _got_  me. It seemed so natural, to lean closer, to kiss her. I couldn’t help myself.”   
  
Leo smiled. He remembered that feeling. He remembered losing that love, having it ripped away. His heart clenched.    
  
“She makes me feel different,” Nikki tried to explain, “still me, but even more like me. I’ve never felt like this before. It’s never felt this right before. I knew almost straight away that we had to be together, that it was what was meant to happen. I’m not talking about fate or destiny or any of that nonsense, it just is. It feels like I can breathe properly for the first time. It’s like I’ve been holding my breath my whole life and now I don’t have to anymore because she’s here.” She blushed and dropped Leo’s gaze. “Sorry, I know that sounds-”   
  
“No,” Leo interrupted, squeezing her hand. “I understand.”   
  
The squeak of polished shoes on vinyl floor brought Nikki’s head back up.    
  
“Harry,” Nikki greeted him eagerly, jumping to her feet despite the pain, “how is she?”   
  
“She’s out of theatre,” Harry said, a little out of breath. “She’s going to be fine.”   
  
“What was it? Where is she?” Nikki asked, not happy with Harry’s vague account.   
  
“There was some damage to her liver but it was minimal. She had a tear in her portal vain, which they have repaired. She’s in recovery,” Harry said. “She was still sedated when I left. Gwen is sat with her.”   
  
~*~    
  
“Oh Morg, how did we get here?” Gwen whispered, bringing Morgana’s pale hand up to press her lips against. “I remember when I first saw you. You looked so nervous, leaning against the railings with wide eyes, watching the freshers floats. You were the most beautiful thing that I had ever seen. You completely took my breath away.” She laughed slightly, tears running down her cheeks. “It was so loud and the crowd was so keyed up. I got carried down the street in the mayhem and I lost sight of you.” Gwen closed her eyes, picturing it.    
  
“I couldn’t believe it when you knocked on my door a couple of hours later, all signs of nerves gone. I never thought you would actually like me. You were so smart and gorgeous. I expected you to be the most popular girl in halls. But you weren’t, you didn’t want to be. You were just as much of a geek as I was,” she laughed. “We spend the first week sat on my bed watching Monty Python repeats and eating Rainbow Drops from the Spar, do you remember? Then on the Saturday, you went and rented The Matrix to watch with me instead of going out with that lad from Surrey who kept asking you out. You sat so close to me through the whole thing that I could barely breathe. You kissed me right near the end, completely out of nowhere, and I couldn’t believe my luck.” She brushed the hair from Morgana’s forehead, the pad of her thumb stroking the soft skin there.    
  
“You asked me if I’d done it before and I said yes because I thought you meant kissed another girl, but you didn’t. I didn’t stop you though, I didn’t want to. You made me feel so special, so wanted. I never told you that you were my first. It was perfect, Morgana. You’re perfect.” Gwen leaned forward in her chair and kissed Morgana’s cheek. “I was such a fool letting you go. I didn’t know what I was doing. I’ll always love you,  _always_ .”   
  
“What about me?”   
  
Gwen turned sharply to see Arthur stood in the doorway, a bunch of flowers clutched in his hand.   
  
“What about me?” he asked again with tears in his eyes. “She’s in love with Nikki you know. I’ve not seen her this lovesick over someone since that first Christmas when she brought you home from uni.”   
  
“I know,” Gwen said, still clutching Morgana’s hand. “And I love you Arthur, just as much as I love her.”   
  
“It’ll never be more, will it? You’ll never love me more.” Arthur asked, taking a step into the room.   
  
Gwen looked up at him with shining apologetic eyes and shook her head. “I’m  _so sorry_ .”   
  
He nodded and dropped the flowers on the table at the end of Morgana’s bed, before walking over to his wife, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and kissing the top of her head. “I can deal with that.”   
  
~*~   
  
“Harry, I’m fine!” Nikki hissed, swatting him away when he went to take her elbow. “Stop fussing.”   
  
“You were missing for over 24 hours,” Harry said, taking her elbow despite her protests, “I’m entitled to fuss.”   
  
They were making the ridiculously long walk – three floors and the entire length of the hospital away – to the private ward, without taking the lift. Nikki had started hyperventilating when they had tried to take the lift up to Morgana’s floor and had dashed back out of it before the doors could close behind her.   
  
“And besides,” Harry continued, smirking, “I’m your knight in shining armour. It’s my duty to escort you.”   
  
Nikki rolled her eyes. “I distinctly remember Arthur being the heroic one. And that’s not even mentioning the fact that Morgana got herself put in hospital for me.”   
  
“Nonsense,” Harry insisted, “I came to your rescue twice.”   
  
“You went down the wrong path and Morgana got snatched whilst you jogged through the forest,” Nikki teased, glaring at him when he tried to take her weight as they reached the second set of stairs. “I am perfectly capable of climbing stairs. I’ve been doing it since I was less than two years old.”   
  
“Alright, alright,” Harry conceded. “At least hold the banister?”   
  
Nikki nodded in agreement and continued to climb.   
  
“So,” Harry said after a moment, “are you going to be all chirpy and loved-up at work now?”   
  
“No,” Nikki laughed, “I don’t really do ‘loved-up’.”   
  
“I’m happy for you, Nikki, I really am,” Harry said, stopping her and giving her a smile. “I’ve got to admit, she wasn’t what I expected from you – you pulled that one out of nowhere – but I think you’ve got it right. You may say that you don’t do loved-up, but I’ve seen the way you look at her and the way she looks at you too.”   
  
“I love her,” Nikki said honestly. “I wasn’t expecting too, not even after that first night, but I do. She’s everything that I never knew I wanted.”   
  
~*~   
  
Later that evening, when Morgana finally broke through the mist of anaesthetic and opened her eyes, it was Nikki who sat at her bedside.    
  
“Hi,” Nikki whispered, squeezing Morgana’s hand. “Do you want me to get your brother or-”   
  
“No,” Morgana interrupted, her voice hoarse and quiet, “Stay.”   
  
Smiling gently, Nikki rubbed her thumb over the back of Morgana’s hand. “I love you,” she said impulsively, her chest tightening the second she said it. They had said at the garage, but they had both been scared that they wouldn’t see daylight again.   
  
Morgana closed her eyes and coughed, before tugging weakly on Nikki’s hand. “Come here,” she murmured, coughing again.   
  
Nikki stood and leaned in to her. “Are you alright?” she asked, her brow pinched in concern.   
  
“I’m so sorry for what I put you through. You have every right to run as fast as you can in the other direction.”   
  
“Don’t,” Nikki said, shaking her head. “Don’t.”   
  
“I love you,” Morgana whispered, tangling her hand in the loose hairs at the back of Nikki’s neck.   
  
Nikki smiled and let her forehead rest against Morgana’s.   
  
“Kiss me,” Morgana begged.   
  
“Always,” Nikki promised, tingling rising in her as she brought her lips to Morgana’s and kissed her.   
  
Gwen took a deep breath and looked away from the window. She had lied to Arthur. She was beginning to think that she did love Morgana more.


	18. Chapter 18

FOUR MONTHS LATER

Morgana was fidgeting. The last time she had been in a courtroom, there had been handcuffs around her wrists. This time she was a witness, not the defendant, but that did nothing to ease her nerves. In the months that had passed since Emrys had abducted her and Nikki, she had largely tried to ignore what had happened. The therapist that Arthur had insisted she see had told her that denial wasn’t healthy, but she wasn’t in denial. Her mind was just occupied with other things – things that didn’t remind her of waking up in the dark with pain radiating through her body and panic in her chest. Dwelling on it wouldn’t do anyone any good. Except now she had to tell a court full of strangers every single detail to make sure that Emrys paid for what he did.

“Miss Lafferty,” the prosecution began. “Thank you for being here. I know it must be difficult.”

Morgana nodded and wished he would get on with it.

“Can you please tell the court where you were on the morning of December 18th last year?”

“I was at the home of Prof. Leo Dalton,” Morgana answered.

“And what is your relationship to Prof. Dalton?”

“He is my girlfriend’s colleague.” She had been worried about this part, the part about Nikki.

“Why were you at his house that morning?”

“Leo had found evidence that suggested someone might be after me and my brother,” she answered, her eyes flicking to Arthur in the gallery. He gave her an encouraging smile. “We didn’t want to be at our homes in case he was right.”

“Who else was at the house?”

“Apart from my brother, Leo and I, there was Leo’s partner Janet, my sister-in-law Gwen, Harry and Nikki. We had all stayed the night before.”

“Your girlfriend Dr. Nikki Alexander and Dr. Harry Cunningham, both pathologists?” he asked, looking for confirmation.

“Yes.” She could feel her pulse quickening, hear it rushing in her ears. “Nikki was talking on the phone in the back garden to the inspector who was working on the case at the time,” she said, trying to move things along.

“And what happened next?”

“Harry and I noticed that Nikki wasn’t in the garden anymore and went looking for her. The back gate was open so we went through it. We came to a fork in the path leading from the gate so we split up. It was overgrown, but eventually the path opened up into a field.”

“What did you see in the field?”

“There was a car park at the bottom of the hill. It was one of those ones put in by the National Trust with the gravel and the log boundaries. There was a dark blue car there, an Audi.”

“Had you seen the car before?”

“I remembered seeing it earlier parked across the road from Leo’s when Nikki and I went to get the milk from the front step.”

“So he saw you two together?”

“Yes,” Morgana said, cold guilt stirring in her stomach. It didn’t matter how many times Nikki told her that it wasn’t her fault, Morgana knew that it was.

“What happened next, after you saw the car in the car park?”

“I don’t remember.” Harry had told her that she had shouted Nikki’s name but Morgana couldn’t remember anything past that first glimpse of the car.

“What is the next thing you remember from that day, Miss Lafferty?”

“I remember waking up somewhere dark and small but I passed out again after I tried to move my leg.”

“Let the court note that Miss Lafferty was suffering from a broken tibia and fibula – her shin bones to us non-medically inclined – as well as a broken rib on her right side. She was also bleeding internally from a tear in her portal vein, for which she was rushed to surgery for following her admittance to hospital.”

There were more questions about that day and the month or so before, both from the prosecution and the defence. By the time they were done, the judge called for a break for lunch.

“Are you alright?” Nikki met her outside in the corridor, hugging her briefly and kissing her cheek. They were doing well together, far better than Morgana had ever imagined.

 

FOUR MONTHS EARLIER

_Morgana wasn’t released from hospital for another week after she came round from the anaesthetic. Even then, she was only allowed home under the understanding that she was on strict bed-rest and was not to be left alone. Gwen had, of course, offered her and Arthur’s spare room, but when Nikki made her own offer, Arthur immediately endorsed her. He made every argument for Nikki’s flat that he could think of. It was all on one level and with Nikki still suspended, Morgana would have a constant watcher. Gwen never stood a chance. Arthur even helped move some of Morgana’s stuff._

_Compared to her own clean styled house, Nikki was afraid that Morgana would find her flat small and cluttered. She did the best she could to tidy away things that had rightful places and bin the things that didn’t and shouldn’t. The morning that Morgana was due to arrive, Nikki had a massive attack of doubt over where Morgana would sleep. There were two bedrooms, Nikki’s and a guest, in which no one but a too-drunk-to-go-home Harry had slept in before. It wasn’t as cosy as her room and the mattress had cost less than half as much, so that made it easy, didn’t it? Or was she just assuming things she shouldn’t to assume?_

_“Good morning Nikki,” Harry mumbled when he picked up the phone. It was before ten on a Saturday, so his greeting had been sarcastic._

_“Where should she sleep?” Nikki asked immediately. She was far too stressed for small talk or anything as trivial as a ‘hello’._

_“I assume you mean Morgana.” There was a rustle, the sound of Harry getting reluctantly out of bed._

_“Yes Morgana,” Nikki said shortly. “Where should she sleep?”_

_“Where she wants to?” Harry hazarded. He didn’t like when women asked those sorts of questions, the correct answer was never the one he gave and they were more often than not a trick. When he didn’t get a reply, he guessed again. “Your room?”_

_“That’s what I thought,” Nikki sighed in relief and hung up. She put Morgana’s things in her room and went to wait nervously in the living room. James Martin was cooking something wonderfully tasty and dangerously full of butter on the television but she couldn’t pay attention, despite the fact that it was dawning on her that she was probably going to have to cook. She tried not to think about it. She also tried not to think about the fact that the lift was being renovated and that her flat was looking more and more unsuitable as a recovery retreat with every passing second._

_Luckily, she didn’t have to wait long. There was a knock on her door at half past ten exactly._

_“Special delivery,” Arthur joked when she opened the door. “I have one incredibly annoying sister here who I believe is now your problem.”_

_As simple as that, Morgana was pushed into Nikki’s arms and Arthur  ran off down the steps calling, “Ring me if she needs anything.”_

_Nikki tried awkwardly to help take the weight of Morgana’s broken leg, which wasn’t easy to do seeing as Morgana was a good couple of inches taller than her._

_“I, err – It’s a bit of a mess. I haven’t had chance to tidy up.” That was a lie, she had spent an hour and a half on the living room alone the night before._

_“After hospital it’s paradise,” Morgana assured her, having to lean more than she would have liked on Nikki, “believe me.” Her voice was still a little hoarse from being intubated and Nikki was surprised to discover that she found it sexy. “Good morning,” she murmured, tilting her head up to capture Nikki’s mouth in a kiss._

_“Good morning,” Nikki smiled against Morgana’s lips. When the kiss threatened to deepen, she pulled back. “Mmm. You smell good,” she whispered._

_“Coca scented shampoo,” Morgana smirked, “works every time.”_

_Slipping an arm around Morgana’s waist, Nikki helped her hobble over to the sofa. “It doesn’t look much but it’s comfortable, I promise.”_

_“I come out of hospital and have to sleep on a sofa? Ouch. What did I do wrong?” Morgana joked, sinking down into the cushions with a wince._

_“You could always... stay in my room,” Nikki suggested, sitting beside Morgana._

_“That’s better,” Morgana smiled, kissing Nikki again. “I’ve wanted to do that so much this past week, but not even private hospital rooms give any privacy.”_

_Nikki smiled blissfully and brushed the hair back from Morgana’s forehead. It was the first time she had seen the long black locks anything other than poker straight. The waves gave Morgana’s face another layer of softness that Nikki wanted to trail with the pads of her fingers. “How do you feel?”_

_“Like I’ve gone ten rounds with Mike Tyson,” Morgana answered unoriginally, though with enough of a flash of teeth that she managed to get away with it. “I feel better though,” she said seriously. They had found out after she woke up, that Morgana had broken a rib as well. Though it wasn’t a bad break, it had set back her recovery. “Just don’t look at my eyes. My pupils are the size of dinner plates. I look like a junkie.”_

_Tilting Morgana’s head so that she could look into her eyes, Nikki considered, “Not quite dinner plates. Saucers, maybe.”_

_“So... Have you spoken to the police?” Morgana asked tentatively, catching Nikki’s hand and playing with her fingers. “Arthur won’t tell me anything. I think he’s enjoying acting like the older sibling for once.”_

_“They aren’t really saying anything,” Nikki sighed, “other than he won’t get bail and that they are processing the evidence from the crime scenes again. There was a couple of DNA samples at the Graham’s that they couldn’t get a match for. A different lab is dealing with it. Leo’s not happy but he couldn’t do much because of my suspension.”_

_Morgana frowned. “You aren’t going to lose your job are you?”_

_“I hope not.” Nikki got up and retrieved an envelope from the table, she handed it Morgana. “I’ve been given a formal warning.”_

_“I’m sorry.”_

_“It’s okay,” Nikki dismissed._

_“No,” Morgana said, struggling to her feet and wrapping her arms loosely around Nikki’s waist, “it isn’t. I’ve turned your life upside down.” Carefully, she ran her hand along the cast on Nikki’s arm. “I wanted to thank you.”_

_“For what?”_

_“For believing in me when nobody else did.” A tear rand down her cheek and she quickly brushed it away. “You’ll never know how much that means to me.”_

_Nikki kissed her before she could say anything else._

 

FOUR MONTHS LATER

“I’m fine,” Morgana whispered, pulling Nikki closer for a moment and breathing in the light smell of her perfume.

“Are you sure?” Nikki looked worried.

Morgana smiled and nodded.

“At least this time you weren’t in handcuffs,” Arthur said lamely, coming out of nowhere to give Morgana a stiff hug. Something had been different between them recently. They weren’t as close as they were before and Arthur didn’t bring his problems to her anymore. “Gwen sends her apologies. Janet’s taken her home. She said the seats were too hard or something but I think she just didn’t like hearing it all.”

“I understand,” Morgana nodded. She didn’t. If Arthur had been a little cold with her lately, then Gwen had been avoiding her almost completely.

“Who’s on the stand after lunch?” Harry asked, coming towards them with Leo. He gave Morgana a quick hug, and then Nikki. Morgana wondered if everyone who talked to her that day would hug her. The thought made her laugh.

“What?” Nikki asked, laughing too, though she didn’t know why.

“Anderson, I think,” Leo answered Leo’s question.

“Nothing,” Morgana smiled, shaking her head.

“That should be fun,” Arthur said sarcastically. “We don’t need to be there for that, do we?”

Leo shook his head. “No, but I’m going to stay anyway. I want to hear what he says about us and the investigation. You should all go though. Get some lunch or go for a drink.” He patted Morgana on the shoulder. “You deserve it.”

~*~

“I can‘t believe that you have been in my car for fifteen minutes without a single protest,” Harry grinned at Nikki through the car mirror.

“Only because I have recently come to appreciate that you aren’t that bad of a driver... comparatively speaking,” Nikki quipped, grinning back. She had been back at work for just over three months and had never been happier to be bogged down with paperwork and aching from standing over a body all day. Banter with Harry had been seriously lacking during her suspension. “At least you’ve never crashed with me in the car.”

Morgana scoffed from beside her. “That wasn’t a crash. Ford Cortina, summer of 2005 – now that was a crash.”

“You drove a Ford Cortina?” Harry asked sceptically. “I don’t believe it.”

“It was Gwen’s actually. She didn’t speak to me for a month. Apparently it was her baby. It had a name and everything,” Morgana said, frowning. “She always did have a strange relationship with cars. I blame her father.”

“I was most definitely a crash,” Nikki persisted. She had no idea what a Ford Cortina looked like or why Harry didn’t believe that Morgana would have owned one. “If you have to exchange insurance details then it counts as a crash on your insurance.”

Morgana rolled her eyes. “I can’t help it if some old man – who, I might add, was far too blind to be driving in the first place – cuts in front of me because he almost missed the slip road. If he had just taken the next exit then it never would have happened. Besides, it was only a tap.”

“Your bumper came off and two kids appeared from nowhere and stole it,” Nikki laughed.

“It was already scratched, I had been meaning to get a new one,” Morgana lied. It was only a white lie. A white lie, that had distracted Nikki from noticing how much it had cost to get Morgana’s Porsche looking brand new again. She had got the money back on her insurance anyway.

Harry was watching them, smiling fondly. He was dating a lawyer he had met through Morgana and had decided that it was time to get over Nikki. They would never have really gotten together. The timing always seemed to be wrong. “Morgana, have you got the order?” he asked, taking the scrawled on piece of paper when she held it out to him. They pulled in at the curb in front of an Italian deli.

Nikki went to take off her belt.

“Nope, you stay here and drive like the wind if a traffic warden comes. It’s no parking between eight and six,” Harry said, before opening the door an inch and nipping out between cars.

“Hi,” Nikki whispered, kissing Morgana properly now that they were alone. She hadn’t gotten used to people staring when they touched in public places. It hurt, but she knew that she would get used to it. Morgana said that she barely noticed at all anymore.

“Hi,” Morgana smiled, wrapping her arms around Nikki’s neck and leaning into the kiss.

“You were brilliant on the witness stand,” Nikki murmured against Morgana’s jaw. “I was proud of how you held it together, even when the defence laid into you about me and how you didn’t remember some of it.”

“I wish I remembered,” Morgana sighed, tilting her head as Nikki’s thumb brushed over her cheek. “Nikki,” she pulled back from the blonde’s touch, “do you remember what I told you about Gwen and the garage?”

Nikki nodded, sitting back in her seat. “You slept together.”

“It won’t happen again,” Morgana assured her.

“I know.” Nikki smiled but it didn’t quite reach her eyes.

“I think Arthur has found out.”

“They have been acting a bit... strained,” Nikki agreed. “You should talk to him about it.”

“Do you think?” Morgana frowned. “I was hoping you would say that I shouldn’t.”

“You don’t want it to come between you,” Nikki sighed, running her hand through her hair. “If he was going to kick off about it, I think he would have done it by now.”

They jumped when the front passenger door was pulled over and a brown paper bag was thrust onto the seat.

“What are you two talking about?” Harry frowned, sliding into the driver’s seat and pulling the door shut behind him with a satisfying  _‘clink’_.

Morgana and Nikki shared a look.

“Harry, there’s something you should probably know before we get to Arthur and Gwen’s,” Nikki began.

“Sounds serious,” Harry said, resting his hand on the handbrake.

“About eighteen months ago, Morgana slept with Gwen,” Nikki said quickly, hoping it would be like pulling off a plaster and be better if she just got it over with. “It isn’t a big deal but we think that Arthur knows, so Morgana is going to talk to him about it when we get there. Don’t get mad because it was before we met and she won’t do it again.” She looked at Morgan then, who nodded brusquely at Harry.

Harry braced himself for trouble. “I – err – I already know.”


	19. Chapter 19

Easing on the break and off the accelerator, Harry slowed the car to a stop. He knew he was in trouble. No one had spoken since they had pulled away from the deli and the air was tense.

“Give us a moment, will you?” Morgana heard Nikki murmur.

Harry nodded, undid his belt and got out of the car. “I’ll see you in there.” The car door closed with a snap.

Morgana was leaning against the far door, eyes unfocused on something outside the window.

A click signalled that Nikki too had undone her belt. The cushioned seat below Morgana shifted as Nikki moved closer.

“I won’t ask if you’re alright,” Nikki whispered, resting her chin on Morgana’s shoulder and leaning her forehead against her cheek.

“I’m...” she wanted to tell Nikki that she was scared, scared that her brother would turn his back on her and that she would be left alone. Pride held her tongue and her frustration grew.

“I know,” Nikki breathed. Her eyes were closed and she breathed in the dark woody smell of Morgana’s skin.  It was intoxicating.

Morgana’s hand found hers and twined their fingers together, needing the comfort. “I fucked up.”

“You can’t blame yourself. What Gwen did was unfair, she knew what she was doing,” Nikki said, squeezing Morgana’s hand. She was angry at Gwen for what she had done and hadn’t been able to take to her as Harry and Leo had.

“He’ll think I planned it,” Morgana choked, shaking her head to dissipate the emotion.

“Did you?” The tone of Nikki’s voice made Morgana ache. She didn’t believe that Morgana had planned it, not for a second.

“No, at least not consciously,” Morgana admitted. “I was even starting to get over her, you know. I was seeing someone casually and I thought it might get more serious but after Gwen... I just – I couldn’t. Being with Gwen again was all I had dreamed about from the day she left me. I know that sounds pathetic but – ”

“It doesn’t,” Nikki assured her, tilting her head to press a kiss to Morgana’s neck where her perfume was strongest. “It sounds like Harry and I. Only I never had him in the first place, so it was worse for you.” Morgana tensed and Nikki kissed her again. Morgana was not beyond an attack of jealousy, though she kept it well hidden. “I never thought I would be, but I’m over him. I love you, Morgana. I trust you and Arthur will too.” Relaxing Morgana tilted her head and sighed as Nikki finished a trail of kisses at her jaw.

“It hurt when she got together with Arthur,” Morgana whispered, still facing the window, though her eyes were closed from Nikki’s touch. “I felt so... inadequate... so fundamentally flawed that she could never love me like she loves him. So when she told me she needed me in the garage, that Arthur never made her feel how I used to make her feel, that only I could give her what she needed, I couldn’t help myself. I’d imagined her saying that in my mind so many times but I never thought that she would.”

“You are  _not_  inadequate,” Nikki said firmly, turning Morgana to her with an insistent finger to her chin. “I promise you.”

Morgana looked at her finally, unsure.

“Move in with me,” Nikki said before she even realised that she was going to say it. “I don’t feel safe without you there.” That too, she hadn’t realised until that moment. She hadn’t realised that the restlessness she had felt at home since Morgana had moved back into her house was fear, not loneliness. Fear, that it wasn’t over, that they hadn’t come out the other side yet. Something made the hair on the back of her neck stand up when she was alone. As much as she hated to admit it, it only stopped when Morgana’s arms were wrapped tight around her. The further Nikki fell for her, the further she realised there was yet to fall.

Morgana smiled fondly at her with shiny eyes. “You don’t have to say that to make me feel better. I’m over her.”

Nikki’s heart sunk but she smiled anyway because she believed that Morgana had left her feelings for Gwen behind. “Let’s go inside.”

~*~

Deli bag in hand, Morgana closed the kitchen door behind her, sealing her inside with Arthur. Her hands were shaking, so she clenched them to try and hide it. She knew it was pointless, as soon as he turned to face her, he would see her nerves. Ever since they were children, he had been able to see through her as if she were made of glass. Sometimes when he looked at her, she felt as though she might shatter.

“Arthur,” she said softly, putting the bag down on the side and taking a step towards him.

“The plates are warming in the oven.” His back was still turned to her and he was up to his elbows in soapy water. “I’ve almost finished with the cutlery. Did the deli have everything we asked for? We don’t want Gwen throwing a strop because they gave her the wrong lettuce.”

“Arthur,” Morgana said again.

“You did check they didn’t give her iceberg, didn’t you?” Arthur continued. “You know that she thinks it tastes like soap. Though how she knows what soap tastes like is a mystery to me.”

“I need to talk to you, Arthur.”

“Later. The sandwiches are going to get cold. I got bacon and I haven’t had bacon for two weeks.  _Two weeks!_ I keep telling her I need it, it’s in our genes isn’t it? Mum was born on a farm for god’s sakes!”

“I know that you’ve found out about Gwen and I, about the garage.”

He stiffened.

“Please, let me explain.”

Silence.

 “Arthur.” Tears stung at her eyes but she refused to shed them.

“If it happens again then we’re through, Morgana,” he said gruffly.

“It won’t,” Morgana promised fiercely, “never.”

Silence.

“Get the tea towel and dry, will you?” Arthur said tightly after a moment. “They’ll be waiting.”

Sniffling, she grabbed the tea towel off the radiator and joined him at the sink. He was still carrying tension in his arms and she knew that although the conversation was over, the issue still hung heavy between them. They had never argued before, not for longer than a few hours and never over something serious. Except that one time when Arthur smashed the glass on their mother’s photo and Morgana hadn’t spoken to him for a week.

The steel of the forks she closed her fingers around was red hot and she dropped them in surprise, gasping and jerking back her burned hand.

“Fuck,” she swore as the forks collided with the floor.

Arthur reached for her instinctively, pulling his hands from their washing up gloves and taking her hand. “You need to run it under the cold water.”

She let him tug her over to the taps and under the icy spray. It wasn’t that bad but Arthur was squinting at her pinked skin like she might die from the injury.

“I’m so sorry, the water must have been too hot,” he apologised when she took back her hand. He wrapped her in a tight hug, holding her closer than he had for months. “I’m so sorry.”

She turned her head into his neck and cried. “You don’t have to be sorry for anything.”

When they came out of the kitchen half an hour later with cold sandwiches on hot plates, nobody said a word about the wait. Arthur sat next to Gwen, Morgana next to Nikki and, from across the table, they smiled at each other.

~*~

“Are you sure you don’t mind?” Morgana asked, leaning against the front door frame with her arms wrapped around her stomach. Part of her wanted Nikki to save her from the potential awkwardness of the night to come, though she knew she had to endure it.

“Of course not,” Nikki lied. She wanted Morgana to come home with her and not watch crappy telly. “They three of you haven’t spent time together alone since you came out of hospital.”

“Because I’ve been busy,” Morgana smiled, unfolding her arms and slipping them around Nikki’s waist.

“Nikki!” Harry called from outside. “Hurry up!”

“Spend some time with him,” Morgana nodded to the open door. “He’s not going to have a good day on the stand. I’ll come over tomorrow and we can go out for lunch before court.”

“Deal,” Nikki grinned.

“Nikki!”

“I’d better go,” Nikki said, grabbing her scarf.

Morgana nodded and smiled mischievously. “Kiss me.”

Nikki rolled her eyes and complied, briefly. “One day that’s going to stop being adorable.”

“Never,” Morgana said in mock seriousness. “Go on, he might drive off without you if you make him wait any longer.”

“I wouldn’t put it past him,” Nikki murmured and kissed Morgana properly. Usually, she only had to look up ever so slightly to kiss her. Now through, Nikki was stood a step below her on the path and Morgana’s hand cupped her jaw, tilting her head right up and kissing her deep and smooth, making her giddy. Every kiss was new, different from the one before. Each time she would notice a different facet, a different sliding of their lips or caress of tongue. By that point though, she couldn’t think of anything at all, especially when Morgana would take dominance then retreat, begging her to follow. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” They broke apart and, not for the first time, Nikki was the only one breathing heavy. She was considering joining Harry on his runs. “Have a good time. I love you.”

“I love you too. I’ll pick you up at midday,” Morgana shouted after her girlfriend, who was making her way down the path towards an irritated looking Harry. “Bye.”

“Bye!” Nikki shouted over her shoulder.

“Bye, Morgana,” Harry yelled, as Nikki pushed him towards the car.

“ _Now_  you’re not in a rush,” Morgana heard Nikki complain. “Couldn’t you have given me five more minutes?”

Morgana smiled and ducked her head. “Bye, Harry.” She waited and waved until the car pulled away, then closed the door and went inside.

~*~

“Do you think they’ll be alright?” Harry asked. It was dark and the only light in the car came in snatches from the yellow streetlights that lined the road.

“Arthur and Morgana? I think so. I hope so,” Nikki sighed, leaning her head against the cold window. She was missing Morgana already. Pathetic. “They’re too close to let this get between them.”

“And how about you?”

Nikki laughed. “What about me?”

“How is living alone again suiting you?” Harry asked, glancing at her quickly so that she could see his smirk.

“I think Morgana was going a bit insane, caged up in my tiny flat,” Nikki answered thoughtfully. “Her house is so much bigger... and nicer.”

“I asked about you, not Morgana, as much as I like her. She stayed with you for almost three months, isn’t it strange now she’s gone?”

“I asked her if she wanted to move in together today. I hadn’t planned to as her but...” Nikki said quietly, trailing off. “She thought I was just asking to make her feel better about Gwen.”

“And were you?” Harry asked.

“Probably. I just got used to having her around,” Nikki dismissed. “Home just seems quiet without her. Do you know that she draws?”

Harry shook his head and went with the change of conversation. “Is she any good?”

“Yeah,” Nikki smiled, remembering the morning she woke to find Morgana drawing her from the sofa in the bedroom, wrapped loosely in the throw from the bed, eyes squinting and hair mussed up. The drawing was far more complimentary than mirrors were and Nikki wondered whether that was how Morgana actually saw her. “She does it all the time. I think she started at university, drawing diagrams in her notes. There’s one that she’s drawn then watercoloured on the wall in Arthur and Gwen’s house of ctenophores, it’s beautiful. I keep finding little doodles all over the flat.”

Harry turned to her and laughed. “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, you are besotted Nikki Alexander.”

Nikki made an annoyed sound and banged her head against the window. “I know.”

“It suits you. I’ve never seen you so happy,” Harry said softly.

A slow smile crept onto Nikki’s face. “Do you want to get a takeaway?” she asked, leaning forward to open the glove box and searching for the menus she knew he kept there.

“And be a poor substitute for Morgana? Why not.”

~*~

The evening, Morgana decided, would not be an awkward one.  There had been a moment at the beginning when they had to divide themselves between the sofa and two chairs. Arthur seemed to be trying to prove he trusted them and had not so subtly indicated with the aid of wine glass placement that the two women were to share the sofa. Morgana was the only one drinking red and her glass had been placed next to Gwen’s non-alcoholic version of the dark liquid on the table at the end of the sofa. Gwen would have to ask when she wanted a drink, thereby ensuring interaction.

“How are things with Nikki?” Arthur asked, topping up Morgana’s barely touched glass.

“Fantastic,” Morgana smiled easily, letting her head fall back against the cushion. A realisation dawned on her and she raised her eyebrows.

~*~

Nikki jumped. She had just been about to turn out the lights and go to bed when a knock on the door shattered the silence. Familiar dread crept up her spine and she shivered. She should have asked Harry to stay instead of letting him call a taxi.

Another knock.

Trying to make as little noise as possible, Nikki crept to the door and peered through the peek-hole. She exhaled deeply and opened the door.

“I should have phoned first,” Morgana said as if just realising it. “Sorry, it’s almost one. I wasn’t thinking. I just – did you mean it?”

“Mean what?” Nikki frowned.

“That you want to move in together,” Morgana said anxiously. She couldn’t stand still. The more she had thought about it, the more she was sure that Nikki had meant it.

Nikki paled. “What would you say if I said that I meant it?”

Morgana’s heart was thundering in her chest. “God yes.”

Visions of waking up to an Oscar Wilde quote on the wall and Morgana tangled naked in the sheets next to her ran through Nikki’s mind.

“Harry’s car is outside,” Morgana observed, shifting in agitation.

“He took a taxi home,” Nikki explained, unable to tear her eyes away from Morgana’s moistened bottom lip caught between her teeth. The tension between them was on the edge of breaking and it was excruciating. “We’re alone.”

Morgana mumbled something unintelligible and swept into the flat, kissing Nikki insistently and kicking the door closed with her heeled boot. It banged loudly as the catch was forced to close and lock out the outside world. The neighbours would complain in the morning, but Nikki didn’t think they would be her neighbours for much longer, so she didn’t care.

“You’ve had a shower,” Morgana murmured, tugging on Nikki’s bottom lip just hard enough to make the blonde’s knees weak.

“I didn’t want to have one in the morning.” Nikki managed to concentrate just long enough to get the sentence out. This was no small feat, as Morgana’s hands were squeezing her bum and before she knew it, her legs were wrapped around Morgana’s waist.

“You smell fucking fantastic,” Morgana growled onto the column of Nikki’s throat, her accent thick.

Nikki shivered. “It’s the – the – the shower gel you left behind. I thou- thought you might like it.” She loved when Morgana got like this. It made her tremble.

Morgana laughed, deep and rich. She sat Nikki on her antique drawers. “I  _definitely_  do.”

“Good because I’ve been trying to get you worked up all day and you were being uncharacteristically resistant,” Nikki gasped, opening Morgana’s jeans with practiced ease. She tugged Morgana between her open legs by the now loose material around her hips and trapped her there.

“I had other things on my mind,” Morgana breathed, slipping her hand under the skirt of Nikki’s nightdress. “But believe me when I say that the only thing in I’m thinking about now is making you scream.”

Nikki dropped her head forward onto Morgana’s shoulder and moaned shamelessly. She knew as she arched into Morgana’s hand that they wouldn’t make it to the bedroom and that was just fine with her.  
  



	20. Chapter 20

 “Wow,” Nikki panted. Her body was sprung momentarily into the air by Morgana’s clumsy collapse beside her. “That was... wow.” She let her head fall wearily to the side to take in Morgana’s glowing, breathless form. In moments like that, Morgana’s eyes seemed almost unnaturally bright, like she was the most alive thing in the world.

“You weren’t too bad yourself,” Morgana said teasingly, kicking Nikki’s shin gently. Their skin clung for a second before coming apart again. “I so needed that.”

“Mmm,” Nikki agreed sleepily, her eyes drifting closed. She definitely  _did not_  want the sun to make an appearance any time soon.

Sleep tugged at her body. Tempting. Teasing. The dreamworld that had eluded her of late was opening its arms to her and beckoning her into its embrace. Her brain was clouded with exhaustion and the offer of sleep was just too good to refuse, no matter how captivating Morgana’s laboured breathing was.

Morgana turned onto her side and pulled Nikki close, kissing her cheek and watching as a small smile tugged on her kiss-swollen lips. Warm love expanded like a second set of lungs in her chest and her heart fluttered from more than just the exertion. She fell asleep feeling happier than she had ever felt before. It was, she hoped, the start of her happily ever after.

_~*~_

_Knock. Knock. Knock._

Nikki stirred, not waking from a dream that was full of Morgana and sunlight. She was by a lake, lying on the sandy bank and watching as Morgana swam slowly towards her. Dream Morgana rose onto the shore, dripping streams of water from the tips of her hair and her strange ornate dress. And then Morgana was above her, water dripping from the tip of her nose now and her pink flushed lips, lips that were getting closer and closer and –

_Knock. Knock. Knock._

A noise of discontent rumbled somewhere in her throat. Her dream was fading just as she was about to get her kiss. Opening her eyes a sliver, she squinted past Morgana’s shoulder to the clock. Eight thirtyante meridiem. She had only been asleep three hours. Three too short hours.

_Knock. Knock. Knock._

“Leave it, they’ll go away,” Morgana murmured, her eyes still closed and her arms tightening around Nikki’s waist.

“It’s probably Harry,” Nikki sighed, though she made no move to leave the bed. She was pretty sure that she could sleep forever. With Morgana pressed up against her, the whole world seemed very far away.

A buzzing followed closely by the Top Gear theme fading in, getting louder and louder behind her briefly alarmed Nikki until she realised it was her mobile phone. It was definitely Harry. Struggling to escape from Morgana’s hold, Nikki grabbed the phone and jabbed at the little green phone icon.

 “Mmm.” Eloquence required four hours sleep at the very least.

“My keys are on your coffee table,” Harry reminded her ruefully.

Nikki made a pitiful sound and hung up. In her sleepy haze, she slipped from the bed to half-hearted protests from Morgana and took a long gulp of the water beside her bed. It was in a special cup that Leo had gotten her for Christmas the year before he met Janet, that you put in the freezer during the day and kept your drink ice cold all night. Or at least that was what Nikki used it for. She got better presents now, that she was sure Janet picked out. Padding out of the bedroom, she managed to find and pull on the nightdress that had been shed in the hall the night before and the crumpled jumper that was strewn over the back of the sofa. By the time she reached the door she looked and felt at least half respectable, if not entirely awake.

“Good morning, Nicola,” Harry quipped, walking into the flat and heading for the living room.

She wandered slowly after him, not amused. “Harry’s here!” she shouted for her girlfriend’s benefit.

Harry spun and crinkled his nose at her. “Why do I sense that something happened after I went home last night?”

“Hey Harry,” Morgana greeted, joining them in the living room. She was much better at mornings than Nikki was. It was almost unnatural. The moment she decided to wake up, she did. Just like that.

“Morning,” Harry said cheerfully, trying not to notice how short Nikki’s already above-the-knee dressing gown was on Morgana. Or how she didn’t seem to be wearing anything underneath. A sharp pain on his arm shattered the scene that had been forming in his imagination. “Ouch, Nikki! That’s... workplace abuse!”

“We aren’t in the workplace and you were staring at my girlfriend,” Nikki said, slapping him again, lighter this time. Luckily, she was laughing.

“Was not,” Harry muttered, rubbing his arm. He took a large sidestep away from Nikki and grabbed his keys off the table. “Right, I shall leave you two to whatever it was that you were doing. Lunch before court?”

Before Nikki could say that they already had plans, Morgana said, “Luigi’s at 12:30? I have a table booked but I won’t be able to make it so the two of you should go.”

It was settled. Harry and Nikki would go for lunch and Morgana would meet them afterwards at court with Leo and Arthur.

“I thought it was just going to us for lunch,” Nikki pouted once Harry had left.

Morgana just laughed and kissed her. “Arthur and I have been called into work by the company lawyer. My step-father’s will has finally come through. It’s just a formality so Arthur can start shaking on deals and signing company checks. It won’t take long. I promise.”

_~*~_

On the way to Uther’s old office, Morgana looked in on her lab, checking on her colonies and batch cultures and talking to the students who were looking after them for the two weeks that the trial was scheduled for. At first, she hadn’t planned on taking the time off. She had already wasted too much time and was increasingly aware of a German lab snapping at her heels. But there were too many things that she didn’t understand yet and she couldn’t get rid on the itch under her skin that warned that it wasn’t yet over. Once she was satisfied that her project wasn’t heading for a disaster, she set off down the long unfriendly corridors that led to the administrative block.

“You’re late,” Arthur said, looking at his watch, when Morgana entered the office without knocking. She had never bothered with such courtesies when her step-father was in charge and she certainly wasn’t going to now that it was her little brother who sat in the reclining leather swivel chair.

Arthur was not, in fact, at that moment, sat in the swivel chair. He was sat in one of the two markedly closer to the ground chairs on the other side of the desk. Morgana took the other one, facing their company lawyer, Teddy Harrington. He was just about the most stereotypical middle-class English eccentric that Morgana had ever met and he had been fiercely loyal to Uther.

“Sorry, I wasn’t at home when I got the call, I had to get changed,” Morgana apologised, smiling first at her brother and then at Teddy. “Let’s get this over with shall we?”

“Quite. This is long overdue and of paramount importance to both of you,” Teddy agreed.

Morgana frowned a little at that.

“I won’t bore you with the legal language. It boils down to what has been left to each of you.”

Arthur sat forward in his seat, looking as nervous as Morgana suddenly felt.

“To you Arthur, your father has left his home here in London and the family retreat in Edinburgh. You have also been bequeathed three quarters of your father’s liquid assets, which come to the sum of twenty three and a half million pounds sterling.”

Arthur’s mouth fell open and Morgana sat back in her chair feeling the unexpected sting of rejection.

“There are also a number of personal effects including an antique rocking horse that I understand you were forbidden from playing with as a child, as well as the contents of both properties you have been left, with a few exceptions.”

“Twenty three and half million pounds?” Arthur asked. There was no way that could be right, was there?

“That’s right,” Teddy nodded. “Now, onto you Morgana.”

She didn’t think it was really worth it.

“Your step-father has left you a third property – as well as its contents – of which, it is my understanding, you do not know he is still in possession of. Number 47 Lansdowne Road, Dublin 4.”

Arthur looked at her. “Is that where we lived?”

Morgana nodded, smiling. Uther hadn’t forgotten her after all. “My favourite ever house.”

“There is also the remaining seven point eight million pounds sterling, a box of you your mother’s jewellery, two wardrobes and set of drawers – also your mother’s – and the contents of Uther’s personal library, which he hopes you will enjoy.”

Morgana was blushing now, though she didn’t quite know why. She had expected some money but that was it.

“And one last thing,” Teddy continued. “Morgana, your step-father has left you Pendragon Corporation in its entirety, including all subsidiaries and patents filed both under the company name and under Uther’s name personally.”

For the first time in her life, Morgana was genuinely speechless.

“Thank God for that,” sighed Arthur.

Morgana stared at Teddy in complete shock. “He – He what?”

“Has left you Pendragon Corporation in its entirety, including all subsidiaries and patents,” Teddy repeated. “I take it that you didn’t know that he intended to leave you the company. It turns out that he had been talking to the board members about it for quite a while.”

“I – No, no I had no idea,” Morgana said, a wave of guilt following the burst of elation. She turned to her brother. “Arthur, I...”

“I’m off the hook!” Arthur grinned.

Her guilt evaporated and she laughed.

“Would you like to know how much the company is worth, Morgana?” Teddy asked.

She bit her lip. “No. Did he say why though, why he left it to me?”

Teddy rummaged in his briefcase and retrieved two envelopes, one of which he handed to Morgana and the other to Arthur. “He has written letters, explaining his choices.”

Arthur opened and devoured his there and then but Morgana stole away to her small office, her hands holding the letter trembling as she rushed through the blur of corridors. Once she was sat safely at her desk, the door closed and blinds closed, she switched on her desk lamp and took a deep breath before breaking the letter’s seal and removing the paper inside.

_My dearest Morgana,_

_I am discovering that it is even harder to write to you than it was to your brother. There is so much that we never said, I wished I had told you that I loved you more often and how proud I am of you. It is a poor excuse on my part but as you got older and grew more and more into your Mother’s looks with none of her personality, I found it harder and harder to show you the affection that you deserved, the affection I felt. I regret every day that I let us drift apart, but know that it did not mean that I didn’t love you. You are more precious to me than you will ever know. You are my daughter in all but blood._

_You are probably wondering why I never told you about_   _Lansdowne Road. The truth is that I couldn’t go back there, not after your Mother died, and I knew that you would if you knew I still owned it. It was selfish but I hope that you will, in time, forgive me. There are some things in the attic there from your childhood, as well as some things of your mother’s and father’s. I hope they will bring back memories of the time we spent there when Arthur and yourself were both so young._

_Pendragon Corporation, as you will know by now, is to be yours. I have been training you, though you did not know it, to take over from your first day working for me and you have far surpassed my expectations, both in your passion and vision for the future and brilliant mind. I have faith that you will bring it to new heights, making it a company to be proud of, as I am afraid I have been unable to do._

_I needn’t ask that you take care of your brother, for I already know that you will. You have been more to him than your Mother or I could have asked. I am more proud than you can ever imagine of the sacrifices you have made for his happiness, I truly do not know how you found the strength. In the jewellery box of your mother’s that I have left to you, you will find two wedding rings. One is the ring she wore when she married your father and the other the one that she wore when she married me. I hope they bring you the happy ever after that you deserve. I wish I could have seen it._

_There is also a locket that I gave your mother when we met all those years ago when you were barely more than a baby. You probably don’t remember, but you were so enamoured with that locket. Whenever your mother took it off, even for a moment, you would take it in your tiny hands and giggle, running around the house chased by your mother until she caught you and tickled you until you gave it back. It will look as beautiful on you as it always did on her._

_Lastly, I want to tell you one last time that I love you with all of my heart, my beautiful daughter._

_All my love,_

_Uther_

Tears fell on the neatly written letter and Morgana held it close to her chest before her tears could ruin it. She closed her eyes and wept.

“Morgana.”

Out of nowhere, Arthur’s arms were around her, pulling her out of her chair and into his embrace. “I know,” he whispered, kissing her head as she broke down, weeping into her chest. “I know.”

His own letter was folded in his pocket, the last line crystal clear behind his closed eyes:

_Take care of your big sister._

 


	21. Chapter 21

The moment that Nikki saw Morgana coming up the stone steps towards the courtroom, she knew that her girlfriend had been crying. It wasn’t redness in her cheeks or a smudge of makeup at the corner of her eyes that gave it away, but the complete and utter absence of eyeliner – like it had been washed away – and the presence of her thick rimmed glasses in place of her contact lenses. Her stance was loose but heavy, like every step was an effort. The crisp energy that had put a spring in her step earlier that morning had been sapped and since disappeared. Something had happened. Arthur wasn’t with her.

Gwen moved, fidgeting, into her peripheral vision. She could feel it to.

“What’s wrong? Was it the will?” Gwen asked when Morgana reached them. She was neat her due date now and her hand absently rubbed her taught round stomach. “Where’s Arthur?”

“He’s at the house – Uther’s house. It’s been released finally and he wants to look for something in the attic,” Morgana told Gwen, ignoring the first question. Her hands were shoved in the pockets of her black jeans and her shoulders were hunched as she turned to Nikki.

Gwen nodded, forgotten, and flicked her eyes to Nikki before reluctantly rejoining Janet and Leo at the benches to leave Morgana and Nikki alone.

“What’s wrong?” Nikki echoed Gwen’s unanswered question, wrapping her arms around Morgana’s neck in a hug. Even slouching, Morgana was taller than her and she had to stand on the balls of her feet to reach her comfortably.

“I – I’ve been left the company in Uther’s will,” Morgana explained, her voice suggesting that she didn’t quite believe it yet. Or, that she didn’t know what to think of it.

 “That’s good, isn’t it? You can devote a whole team to working on Excali-” Nikki pulled back, bit her lip and smiled. She could see embarrassment beginning to colour Morgana’s cheeks. Nobody but the two of them knew of Morgana’s pet name for her research project. “- your antibiotic.”

“I hadn’t thought of that,” Morgana admitted. She looked like a child, all folded in on herself like she wanted to disappear. When she was like this, she most often retreated to her library and buried herself in a book far too large and fantastical for Nikki’s liking. Such a book, Nikki couldn’t produce from behind her back, but there was one other thing that never failed to lift Morgana’s mood.

Nikki whispered Morgana’s favoured line, “Kiss me.”

She had never let Morgana kiss her in a public place before. It cruel sent shivers down her spine to see people watching them with contempt and she wouldn’t do anything to provoke it. Now though, with Morgana’s eyes so dull and her mouth slack and lifeless, she had to kiss her. She longed to see her smile.

Morgana frowned in puzzlement. “But...”

“Please, Love.”

Her pulse raced when Morgana’s hands cradled her cheeks and tipped back her head, before breathing a short sweet kiss onto her lips. It still stole the air from her lungs when Morgana kissed her like that, with just the barest touch and the heaviest feeling. She had never kissed anyone who could make her feel as weak kneed – clichéd as it was – as Morgana did. It was like the walking on water and passing an exam with flying colours all at the same time. It made her feel invincible.

“Thank you,” Morgana whispered, brushing her thumbs over the flare of Nikki’s cheekbones. She knew that Nikki had done it for her, to pour some life back into her. For the first time in years, Arthur’s hugs hadn’t been enough to banish her worries. Nikki’s kiss, though, had done it in a heartbeat. At least for now.

 

 

They had just settled in their seats when the courtroom door opened and Harry snuck in. He had been lead away by their barrister half an hour earlier to prepare for his testimony and should have been getting ready to stand in the witness box. What he definitely shouldn’t have been doing was picking his way towards them through the small crowd of reporters.

“What are you doing?” Nikki whispered when he squeezed in beside her on the bench, displacing a large woman who had brought humbugs and an Agatha Christie novel.

“Riding a bicycle. What does it look like I’m doing?” Harry hissed back. “I’ve been bumped until next week.”

“For who?” Morgana asked, leaning past Nikki, who swatted at her marginally cheered up girlfriend.

Harry shrugged. “They didn’t know. Or wouldn’t tell me.”

_“All rise for The Right Honourable Judge Hussein.”_

With a start, they got to their feet.

It was a new judge.

“Please be seated,” the Judge bid in a broad Scottish accent. He waited for them to sit, squinted at the piece of paper that had been handed to him and then continued. “In a change to the planned proceedings, this afternoon’s testimony will not be delivered by Dr. Harry Cunningham but will instead come from the defendant, Mr. Melvin Emrys. The court apologises for any inconvenience this has caused but it is due to matters out of our control - there is to be a strike of the prison van drivers next week.” He pushed his glasses up his nose. “Court is now in session.”

Morgana stiffened. Her heart raced and her breathing became uneven. This wasn’t supposed to be happening. Emrys wasn’t supposed to be in court until the following Wednesday, a day that she had no intention of being present for. She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t be in the same room as him. She couldn’t look at him again, knowing that he had killed her father – because he was, he really was – and what he had done to Nikki. Suddenly the courtroom seemed as small as the hole in the ground that he had kept them in. The smell of car oil slithered in, bitter on her tongue, and the damn air smothered her skin. She was there again. Alone.

Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and clenched her hands to stop them from shaking. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing her like this, she was stronger than that. Except, maybe she wasn’t. She hadn’t been able to protect Nikki from him. When Arthur and Harry had gotten there, they had diffused the danger so easily, so quickly. All she had done was get herself drugged and beaten up so badly that she couldn’t have raised even a finger in Nikki’s defence. She was weak. She didn’t deserve to be loved. That was why everyone left her – her father, her mother, Gwen, Uther.

But then Nikki’s hand was in hers, squeezing it tightly, and Gwen was holding her other arm and resting her chin on Morgana’s shoulder, and the world came crashing back.

Nikki didn’t say a word, but Gwen whispered, “Open your eyes.”  And it was an order, so she did.

The courtroom was bright, bright and full of people she knew and trusted. Even as the door to the defendant’s box opened and Emrys was led in, she felt the warmth of her friends beside her, and was calm. He had no power over her now. She wouldn’t let him.

He spotted her immediately and smirked. His eyes were as dark and evil as the first time they had met hers, but they didn’t fill her with ice like they had now he was in chains.

Their barrister was up first. “Mr. Emrys, can you tell the court the purpose of your trip to the United Kingdom?”

Morgana another deep breath. He was still looking straight at her.

“To avenge for my sister’s murder,” Emrys said evenly, his accent a stark contrast against the barrister’s Cambridge scholar’s tones.

 “Is it not true that your sister’s death was ruled accidental by the courts of the United States of America?” The barrister probed.

“The case was corrupt,” Emrys said. “The judge’s wife received large donations for her lobbying organisation from the CEO of Oaklow Pharmaceuticals. Justice was not done.”

“So you took matters into your own hands?”

“If the government refuses to exact justice for its citizens, then it is within the rights of individuals to pursue such justice,” Emrys said flatly.

“Rights according to which constitution?” The barrister asked. “Certainly not that of the United Kingdom or that of your homeland across the Atlantic.”

“It is a God given right,” Emrys countered. His anger was flaring already.

“And where in the Bible is this right laid out, Mr. Emrys?”

He just laughed, his emotions changing as fast as seconds came and went.

“Alright, we will move on. What did you do once you had arrived in the country?”

“I met with my associate.”

Whispers washed over the courtroom like a wave.

“Quiet in the gallery, please,” Judge Hussein called.

“Your associate?” Their barrister asked. “And who would that be?”

“Joseph Gaius,” Emrys said, smiling slyly when he saw recognition bloom on Morgana’s face.

Joseph Gaius was one of the senior board members at Pendragon Industries. He had been one of the initial investors in the company and Uther’s dear friend for decades. It couldn’t be him. It couldn’t. He had brought Morgana presents on her birthdays and taken Arthur out for rides in his Austen Martin. He had been Uther’s confidante after her mother died. He was practically part of the family.

“He’s lying,” Gwen whispered, shifting uncomfortably and relinquishing her hold on Morgana.

Morgana held his gaze, cold and hard. “No. He’s not.”

She understood now. It was perfectly clear. Joseph would have known that Uther had intended to leave the company to her. He could have controlled Arthur. Arthur would have deferred to him in everything. He didn’t want to run the company. Joseph would have been the power behind a silent figurehead. If she died, then company would be as good as his.

Emrys sneered. “It was all his idea – the insulin, the Grahams, the fire, pinning it on Uther’s little protégée over there. Everything.”

“And what about the kidnap and assault of Dr. Nikki Alexander and Morgana Lafferty?” The barrister was thrown. He didn’t know who Joseph was. She had to talk to him.

He laughed. “They got what they deserved.”

“What they deserved?” The barrister probed.

Morgana knew what he meant. She had seen that look he gave her more times that she could count, and it still made her blood run cold.

“I have to go,” Gwen said suddenly, quickly getting to her feet.

“Are you alright?” Nikki asked as she sped past her. Everyone was watching.

“I’m fine,” Gwen said, breaking free of the gallery and heading for the exit.

When the door swung closed behind her, the court returned its attention to the defendant. Morgana, though, hadn’t let her eyes leave his for a second. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.

“I saw you,” he was talking directly to Morgan now, his mouth twisted in distaste, “with  _her_.” He didn’t look or gesture at Nikki, he didn’t have to.

“Mr. Emrys,” the Judge said sharply, “you will not address members of the gallery, is that understood? If you cannot abide by the rules of the court then you will be held in contempt and returned to your cell.”

He laughed. “Sure, whatever you say.” But his eyes still bore into Morgana.

Morgana jumped when her phone vibrated in her pocket and she broke his gaze. The judge protested again, stronger this time, but Morgana wasn’t listening. Instinctively, she reached for her phone. The message was from Gwen:

**I’m in the bathroom. I need you.**

Without giving it as moment’s thought, she rose and rushed out of the courtroom, leaving everyone once again watching the door swing closed.

 

 

Morgana burst into the ladies bathroom and scanned her surroundings. There were eight stalls along the right wall and a bank of hand basins flanked by a long mirror on the other. All of the stall doors were unclosed and there wasn’t a single sound in the room but her own pounding heart. She had run all the way from the courtroom to the first bathrooms she had seen, but they seemed deserted. Had she run passed others? Maybe Gwen had gone the other way. Or maybe-

A pained cry punctured the silence.

 “Gwen?”

“I’m –  _ahhh_  – I’m at the end.”

Morgana rocked into motion, sprinting to the far end of the room, slipping and colliding with the wall. Luckily, she remained upright. “I’m alright, I didn’t fall,” she announced.

“Good for you!” Gwen bit, her eyes screwed up in pain.

The floor beneath her feet was wet. It was soaking into her Converse. Her stomach turned. “That’s disgusting,” she murmured before she could stop herself.

“Blame your idiot of a brother,” Gwen screamed, “who can’t even answer his damn phone!”

Morgana’s eyes widened. It dawned on her what the liquid on the floor was. “You’re in labour.”

“Well that degree certainly wasn’t wasted on you.”

“And you’re angry.” Morgana took a hesitant step forward and patted Gwen’s arm uselessly. All she could think about was the revolting liquid soaking into her socks. She shivered. Giving birth was disgusting. She had studied parturition at university and had practically emptied her dinner all over her textbook when she turned over the page and saw the  _very_  graphic images of what was enough to put her off sex for week. Gwen hadn’t been too happy but just the thought of the grotesque contortions of what she had previously found highly engaging kept her hands firmly above her girlfriend’s waistline. She had gone to church that Sunday, for the first time in years, especially to thank God repeatedly and enthusiastically – in her head, she wasn’t completely insane – for making her gay.

“Did you just shiver?!”

She shook her head. “Nope. I – I was, err...” Practical, she had to be practical. Thinking about the sentence that had contained the words, “streatching to the point of tear”, was definitely not helpful. She was a competent woman with a first class degree from the medical life sciences department of a very prestigious university and was thinking about starting a PhD. She was not squeamish. She had been to several post-mortems as an undergraduate and had spent five whole hours at the  _Bodies_  exhibit when it had visited London. Blood didn’t bother her. Bone didn’t bother her. Amniotic fluid and “streatching to the point of tear” apparently did. She actually felt a little nauseous. Gwen would kill her if she found out.

“I’ll call an ambulance,” she decided, stepping out of the stall and onto dry land.

“What about your car?” Gwen appeared to be between contractions now, but was still extremely irate.

The truthful answer was that Morgana had just had her beautiful car cleaned inside and out. What she actually said as she was dialling 999 was, “Arthur gave me a lift.” There was no way that she was getting blood and God knows what else all over it, even if Gwen was in labour.


	22. Chapter 22

When Morgana dashed from the courtroom, it had been a sense of propriety and, more importantly, the possibility of meeting Judge Hussein as an expert witness that had kept Nikki in her seat. Soon though, the impatient buzzing of her phone vibrating in her bag became too much to ignore and she had to relent. She thought about turning it off but with Harry supposed to be in the witness box, she was on call. There was no choice but to answer. Polite smiles and apologetic looks got her out of the courtroom with far less spectacle than Morgana, who was, on occasion, dramatic to fault. Only then, when the proceedings of the court were muffled through the heavy wooden door at her back, did she answer her phone.   
  
“What is it?” she asked, trying to keep the annoyance out of her voice. All that she could think of was Joseph Gaius. Morgana had been the target, was still the target, and she had just left. Emrys’ partner could be anywhere.   
  
“Gwen’s in labour. I need you Nikki, I can’t do this,” Morgana said breathlessly.   
  
  
  
  
  
“Your girlfriend is useless!” Gwen screeched when Nikki entered the bathroom, her phone still clutched in her hand. She would just have to hope that she was never brought before Judge Hussein as an expert witness. He hadn’t exactly been pleased when she brought the number of people fleeing his gallery to three.   
  
“I phoned an ambulance and a doctor. What more could you want?” Morgana was in the stall with Gwen, rubbing her back in slow, soothing circles. She was doing better than she thought.   
  
“You phoned a pathologist,” Gwen countered testily. “No offence.” She looked up at Nikki over her shoulder and smiled apologetically.   
  
“None taken.”   
  
“Oh that’s lovely. You’re nice to her,” Morgana murmured under her breath when Gwen shifted to put more of her weight on her. “I, however, cannot do anything right.”   
  
“You haven’t done anything!” Gwen insisted. “You’re as bad as your absentee brother.”   
  
“There’s nothing to do. Your contractions are 20 minutes apart – you have only had two since I’ve been here. You aren’t going to give birth in the toilets. I’m not checking how dilated you are.”   
  
Quite bloody right too, a little voice cried in Nikki’s head. Fortunately, she managed to keep it there. She wasn’t jealous of Gwen. Well, not much anyway. Not anymore. Morgana had lied about being ill a few days ago to get out of lunch with her ex-girlfriend-come-sister-in-law and had spent the time in the bath with Nikki and a bottle of expensive wine instead. That had fluffed Nikki’s ego nicely.   
  
“All I can do is wait for the ambulance to get here and let the doctors take it from there. And Arthur isn’t absentee, he just isn’t answering his phone. He probably forgot to charge it or something. You know what he’s like.”   
  
Gwen seemed to soften a little at that. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.   
  
“It’s okay.” Morgana smiled slowly.   
  
“I’m not ready,” Gwen murmured, shaking her head.   
  
“I know. I know, sweetheart,” Morgana soothed, brushing Gwen’s hair off her damp neck, “but everything will be fine, I promise. Okay? You will be a brilliant mum and Arthur,” she laughed, “Arthur may be a little immature, but he wants this so much. He will be with you every step of the way, and so will I.”   
  
When Gwen looked up at Morgana and nodded, Nikki could see love in her eyes. She looked at Morgana as if she had the power to make everything right, but there was also a sadness in that gaze, something that tugged on Nikki’s heart and made her turn away.   
  
“Will you stay with me?” Gwen asked, shaky and fragile.   
  
“You couldn’t get rid of me it you tried.”   
  
A tear ran down Nikki’s face. She wiped it away and looked back, her eyes rising from Gwen’s back, moving up and down with erratic breaths, to Morgana’s flushed face.   
  
“I love you,” Morgana mouthed but Nikki’s insecurities refused to quieten.   
  
  
  
  
  
They had been at the hospital for two hours already and still, despite the dozens of messages he had been left, there was no sign of Arthur.   
  
“He promised,” Gwen wailed, looking at Morgana with pleading eyes. “Morgana, he promised.”   
  
“And he won’t break it, not if he can help it,” Morgana assured her.   
  
“You won’t leave me, will you?” Gwen asked again, holding Morgana’s hand with both of her own atop her swollen belly.   
  
“I’ll be here every step of the way,” Morgana promised with a smile. “That’s my nephew in there. There’s nowhere I would rather be than here.”   
  
“And your godson too,” Gwen reminded her. She had been insistent at that. Arthur and Morgana had not been brought up overly religious, but the tradition was important to Gwen and she had insisted that it be Morgana who carry the title. “You know, there was a time when I dreamed of this for you and me – a wedding, a baby, the whole thing.”   
  
Morgana smiled sadly and dropped her head. “That isn’t me,” she whispered. Gwen had never hid her desire to settle down, even when they were still at university, and Morgana had gone along with it for a while. Indulging in such talk had more often than not ended up with them in bed, Gwen’s eyes dazzling and her body receptive to Morgana’s every touch, so Morgana had let Gwen think that it was what she wanted too. Eventually though, she had admitted, with more wine down her than was good for her, that she didn’t want a family at all. She hadn’t remembered it in the morning, but Gwen, good sweet Gwen who never drank too much or did anything that she shouldn’t without Morgana’s hand tugging her along, did remember.   
  
“You’re wrong.”   
  
Morgana lifter her head and pushed away the memories.   
  
“You’ve changed over the years,” Gwen said. “You’ve grown up.” Bringing Morgana’s hand up to her lips, she kissed it, then pressed it against her heart. “I sometimes wonder, if I’d never bumped into Arthur at that party, if we would have gotten back together.”   
  
“Arthur has given you everything you ever wanted,” Morgana said softly.   
  
“He’s given me nothing you couldn’t have given me.”   
  
Morgana raised her eyebrow and gestured to where they were.   
  
“There are ways and means,” Gwen said with a smile, “and you know it.”   
  
“Why are you saying this?” Morgana asked shortly.   
  
Gwen let her head fall back against the pillow and sighed. “Because I need to say goodbye to us. I will always be your best friend and I will always love you, but I need to let go of you or I won’t be able to have you, do you understand?”   
  
Morgana shook her head.   
  
“I need to be able to take comfort in you, to hold you, to kiss your cheek and tell you everything that I can’t tell Arthur. I need to be able to come to you with my problems and have you fall asleep in my lap like before you and Arthur found out how I still feel about you. I need you to be my best friend, but to do that I have to let go of the part of me that wants you in a way I shouldn’t want you anymore. So I have to be completely honest with you,” Gwen said calmly, starring up at the bright halogen lights in the ceiling. Morgana’s hand squeezing hers told her to continue.   
  
“You were my first. Before that night in my room at halls, I was a virgin. I thought when you asked if I’d done it before that you were asking if I’d kissed a woman before, that’s why I said yes, but then you pressed me down onto the bed and it was almost as if you knew. You were so gentle and tender, even though we barely knew each other. It was perfect, magical even, and I need to thank you. You gave me the fantasy. Granted, there were no candles, no music and the bed was too small, but it was with you and it was perfect.”   
  
Morgana blushed. “I knew as soon as it started that it was your first time, but I thought you had just lied about it. I’m sorry, I should -”   
  
“Like I said,” Gwen interrupted, “it was perfect.” She bit her lip. “There’s more.”   
  
Taking a deep breath, Morgana nodded. “Go on.”   
  
“When we were in South Africa, I was going to propose to you,” Gwen said slowly. “I bought a ring and was planning to do it on our last day, after the trek to see the gorillas. But when we were robbed, they took it and I was too scared to tell you. After that, after things started to fall apart, I went out one night, got drunk and... I kissed someone else. I felt so guilty. Every time you touched me, I remembered what I had done to you and I felt sick. I couldn’t stand what I’d done to you. That’s why I left, not because I didn’t love you anymore. I never should have said that.”   
  
“No,” Morgana sniffed, roughly brushing a tear from her cheek, “you shouldn’t.” She stood up and turned away from the bed. “Since we’re being honest, I would have said yes. If you had asked me to marry you, I would have said yes. I’d never wanted to get married, I hated the formality of it all and ridiculous politics that surrounded it, but I would have done it for you. You were right, I would have given you everything.” When she looked back, Gwen averted her gaze. She was crying.   
  
“I started see Arthur because he reminded me of you. You were seeing that redhead from Edinburgh so I kept it up with him to make you jealous. But time passed, and I fell in love with him. It wasn’t like it was with you but I loved him all the same.” She paused. “I do love him, Morgana, and I would never hurt him the way I hurt you. But that doesn’t mean that I regret what happened between us when you bought me the garage, because I don’t. It was, but could never regret getting to hold you and love you one last time.” She looked down at her lap. “I was selfish.”   
  
Morgana clenched and relaxed her hands by her side, before leaning over to kiss Gwen’s forehead – slow and lingering and final. Finally, it was over.   
  
  
  
  
  
Before two more hours were out, the baby was born. Arthur was still nowhere to be seen but Morgana was there through it all, just as she promised, not matter how faint it made her feel. She was the person the midwife handed the red-faced baby to and for the few brief seconds it took to walk to Gwen’s side and hand her son to her, she felt as though she was on top of the world. She had a nephew, a little boy who would grow up with Gwen’s smile, calling Morgana auntie and loving her with a child’s unconditional love. Her family had grown again. She didn’t think she had ever been so happy.   
  
“Does he have a name?” she asked a little while later, when they had been left alone and an exhausted Gwen had handed her back the baby.   
  
“He does. He’s Morgan,” Gwen whispered, her voice hoarse, “after his auntie. It was the only name that Arthur and I could agree on and it couldn’t be more perfect for him. Though I should have known that would make him early. You never could suffer being late.”   
  
Despite her best efforts, a tear fell down Morgana’s cheek at that. “He is so beautiful, Gwen.” She laughed. “Thank God he doesn’t look a thing like Arthur.”   
  
Gwen smiled. “I don’t know, I think he has your mother’s eyes. Not the colour, but the shape.”   
  
Little Morgan’s eyes opened half way and Morgana imagined he was looking at her. “He does.”   
  
There was a quiet knock and the door opened.   
  
“I hope its okay... The nurse said I could come in,” Nikki said unsurely.   
  
“It’s fine.” Gwen waved her in. “I was just going to get Morgana to get you if you were still here.”   
  
Nikki’s heart clenched when Morgana looked up from the tiny sleeping baby in her arms to meet Nikki’s eyes, smiling. “Of course I’m still here, I couldn’t miss this.”   
  
“This,” Morgana began, tilting the baby for Nikki to see, “is my nephew, Morgan.” She grinned. “I have a baby named after me!”   
  
Nikki laughed and brushed her fingers over Morgan’s soft head. “You are going to be no good for her ego whatsoever,” she whispered to him.   
  
Gwen sat up a little more in bed. “You can hold him if you can pry him away from his doting aunite.”   
  
“I’ll let her keep him for a little while longer,” Nikki smiled, squeezing beside Morgana on the chair and touching Morgan’s little fist with her finger. She liked watched Morgana holding him, she looked perfectly happy for the first time since Nikki had met her. “He’s gorgeous.”   
  
“Thank you.” Gwen smiled. “Arthur and I have been talking and we wondered whether you wanted to be his godmother too?” she asked. “It’s a bit sad really, Arthur was supposed to be asking his friend Tommy from school but he’s gotten a job in Australia and, well, he’s a bit of a prat anyway. So I suggested you.”   
  
Nikki was stunned. But then Morgana smiled at her she found herself agreeing, just as Arthur burst through the door carrying a one armed teddy bear and a balloon.   
  
  
  
  
  
“You’re addicted to that baby,” Nikki teased. She was driving them home from the hospital, thankful that she had had the good sense to drive behind the ambulance. The clock on her dashboard told her that it wasn’t yet half past nine, but her exhausted body challenged that. It seemed like an age since she had woken up beside Morgana that morning. “I thought I would have to physically pry you away.”   
  
Morgana smiled shyly.   
  
“How does it feel to be someone’s namesake?”   
  
“Strange. It somehow makes me feel more responsible for him.” Morgana looked out the window. They were nearly home – Nikki’s home – their home. She smiled. “He is cutest thing I’ve ever seen.”   
  
Nikki smiled. “I thought you didn’t like children.”   
  
“I like them well enough when I can give them back at the end of the day. Though somehow I don’t think it will be that easy with Morgan.”   
  
“Would that be such a bad thing?” Nikki asked, pausing before her front door to continue their conversation, key in hand. They had had to park 5 minutes walk down the street and by the time they reached her floor, her feet were killing her. She had only worn the black heels to match her court outfit. She hadn’t expected to be in them so long.   
  
Morgana bumped into her back and didn’t move away. “Would what be such a bad thing?”   
  
“Having to look after Morgan sometimes.”   
  
Morgana smiled and snaked her arms around Nikki’s waist. “No. I think I might have to insist on it.”   
  
“You always said that you and Gwen would never have worked out because she wanted a family and you didn’t?” Nikki asked carefully. “Do you still feel the same? About a family, I mean.”   
  
Morgana’s eyes widened. She hadn’t told Nikki about what Gwen had told her yet. “Errm...” She rested her chin on Nikki’s shoulder and gave herself a second to think about it. Gwen was right, she had changed. “No. I don’t think I do.”   
  
Turning under Morgana’s hands, Nikki kissed her gratefully, turned the key in the lock behind her and pulled them both inside, tiredness forgotten.   
  
In the dark, they fumbled over discarded shoes by the door and the raised edge of the rug, before colliding with the back of the sofa and collapsing into a fit of giggles.   
  
“I swear that your flat attacks me,” Morgana hissed. “It waits until it’s dark and then lashes out!”   
  
“Only because you don’t pay enough attention to the layout. You lived here for weeks, Morgana, and still you bump into my grandmother’s antique table every time you pass it!” Nikki laughed, finding Morgana’s hips in the dark to anchor them together. It was pitch black but she knew her well enough that she could almost see her smile, see the amusement dancing in her eyes.   
  
“She always was clumsy child.”   
  
The voice, once so comforting, sent chills down Morgana’s spine. She turned slowly, putting Nikki to her back and the source of the voice to her front, before leaning slowly to her left and pulling the chord to light the table-top lamp. The yellow light lit up the face of Joseph Gaius’ and glinted off the revolver in his gloved, shaking hands.   
  
“I had almost forgotten about you,” Morgana said boldly, stupidly. Nikki hit her back lightly for it.   
  
“Forgetfulness, now that was really more of your brother’s forte,” Joseph said smoothly, turning the barrel of the revolver until it clicked into place. “You were always so bright, so astute.”   
  
“Apparently not astute enough.”   
  
He laughed.   
  
“What is your plan now? Kill me? What would that achieve? The police already know you were the mastermind behind everything Emrys did, he told the entire courtroom.” This time, Morgana was determined not to let Nikki down. Even with a gun pointed at her chest, Joseph was just one old man. If she couldn’t protect Nikki from him, then what use was she?   
  
“Don’t do anything stupid, please,” Nikki begged, tightening her grip on Morgana’s arms.   
  
“You were Uther’s best friend,” Morgana said in disbelief. “You were like a brother to him.”   
  
“He dismissed me like a little brother not worthy of his precious company, the company I help him set up! Do you really think he could have made all those contacts in America without me? He was a small man with small ambitions. He would have been happy to keep the company in the UK and Irish markets, just so he could come home at 6 o’clock like he was just another office worker. The company would have gone bust by now if he’d been allowed to be so selfish,” Joseph spat. “Without me you would have noting, no company, no money, no job.”   
  
“Without you I would have him!” Morgana cried, shaking.   
  
“And then he had to go and leave it all to you, his petulant bleeding-heart-liberal stepdaughter. If I were to just let you take control, you would run it into the ground. The international trials would be gone and the ties with the Ugandan and Indian companies severed. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Pendragon Corporation slipped from competing with the US fortune 500 to liquidation within a year. I can’t let that happen.” He raised the gun to point at her chest. “Maybe I can’t have the company for myself now, but I won’t let you ruin it.”   
  
His finger tensed on the trigger, and the gun went off.


	23. Chapter 23

Somewhere between the bang of the gun and her muffled scream, the light had gone out, leaving Nikki blind. She didn’t know what had happened. She didn’t know where Morgana was. All she knew was that the plane of Morgana’s back was no longer pressed flush against her and that reaching out could not find her. She was alone. The echo of the gunshot seemed to lick at her skin as it rebounded again and again, crashing over her in an unending series of waves. Her lungs laboured on the thick air, dragging it in and out with no relief. For several long, life shattering moments she existed within a vacuum where not even her heart beat. There was no sound, no light by which to see, and only the solid feel of the sofa behind her to keep her grounded.   
  
“Morgana!” In her head it was a scream but out in the room it was no more than a whisper.   
  
Before she could move tongue to speak again, a yelp of surprise broke the thunderous silence. Her mind scrambled to garner every piece information from it that she could. It came from within the room, close but not as close so close that she could reach out and touch its maker. It hadn’t been her yelp and it hadn’t been Morgana’s either. She wasn’t completely sure of that last point, but she thought she would have recognised the timbre if it had been hers. Assuming no one else had entered the fray, that only left Joseph Gaius. If the yelp had indeed been his, then that was good. Either it meant he had hurt himself in the dark – this seemed quite unlikely given the fact that he had been lying in wait of them in the very same darkness, presumably growing accustomed to it – or someone else had hurt him. Nikki hadn’t moved, so that left Morgana, meaning that the bullet has missed its quarry. The air thinned.   
  
A second later, there was a bang, sharp and loud. It rippled through the lingering echoes of the gunshot, feeding them and making Nikki’s ears ring with renewed fervour. She couldn’t pinpoint where it had come from, the darkness and stolen her sense of distance and orientation. Where was she facing? The sound came from in front of her, not from behind, but how far in front of her? Was it from all the way near the wall or closer? Before she could begin to think it through, the bang was followed by a smashing sound, like glass being broken against something solid. Then came silence, cold ear piercing silence.   
  
“Morgana?” She had found her voice, though it sounded thin and fearful in the newfound quiet. Her ears had stopped ringing. Or had she just gotten used to it? She could hear her own breathing, that was it.”   
  
  
“I’m here,” Morgana called breathily from somewhere in the darkness. Her voice was laboured but strong Nikki felt like crying. “Switch on the main light, will you? I think he shot the lamp.”   
  
For a moment, Nikki could not recall the layout of the room. She had lived there for years and she hadn’t changed the scheme since six months after moved in. Her bedroom sprang clear into her mind, her kitchen too and the hall to the bathroom and spare room, but her living room eluded her, hovered on the edges like it was mocking her. Morgana’s under her breath whispered curses floated to her from somewhere in the darkness and it all came back to her. She slid along the edge of the sofa and crossed the three foot of open floor to the light switch. Nothing had attacked her in the dark, no Joseph Gaius and none of Morgana’s hostile furniture.   
  
Flicking the switch brought a hiss of pain from her lips as the bright light bleached her eyes, rendering her blinded again, this time by white light.   
  
When she regained her vision, she exhaled her held breath. Gaius was on the floor at Morgana’s feet, unconscious. Morgana was stood over him, her hair hanging down in front of her face and her arms around herself as if she was shivering.   
  
Morgana looked up at her sheepishly. “I think I knocked him out. You should probably phone an ambulance.”   
  
“Or the police,” Nikki countered. “He’ll live,” she said shortly, regarding the apparently unconscious man with suspicion. He had proven himself to be a sly man and she did not trust him. “How did you knock him out?” she asked once Morgana’s brief conversation with the emergency services coordinator was finished. She had requested an ambulance and the police.   
  
Morgana reddened. “You know your mother’s vase? Well, I sort have, might have, just a bit, used it to whack him on the head with.” Her lip was bleeding. “Sorry.”   
  
Some of the tension in Nikki’s muscles slipped away. She could see the shards of the glass vase scattered on the floor. “That doesn’t matter,” she said almost scoldingly. How Morgana could worry about a vase at that moment escaped Nikki entirely. Though, it occurred to her that she probably didn’t. It was just the easiest thing to face. “Are you alright?” she asked. There was bruise forming already on Morgana’s left cheek, long, like a dark stripe on her pale skin.   
  
“I can’t believe it Nik. How could he-” She looked fearfully down at Joseph Gaius, her former friend and role model.   
  
“He wasn’t the man you thought he was,” Nikki cut her off. She crossed the room, taking a wide detour around Gaius’ motionless form. She stopped to make sure he wasn’t bleeding from the impact and, seeing he wasn’t, had to try very hard not to give him a kick. She knew better than that though. Those sorts of things turned up on post mortems, she didn’t want to take the chance of turning Morgana’s self defence into a vicious attack on an old man if things went south. When she got closer, she could see that Morgana was shaking, and little wonder. “Morgana,” she said softly, reaching out to turn her girlfriend away from Gaius. “Look at me. Are you alright?”   
  
Morgana met her eyes, trembling. She nodded. “I – I don’t-”   
  
“I know,” Nikki whispered, rubbing her arm. “Come here.” She had to stand on her toes to wrap her arms around Morgana’s neck in hug, pulling her close. She closed her eyes and savoured the feeling of Morgana’s arms around her waist, though only for a minute – she didn’t trust Gaius to stay unconscious.   
  
  
  
  
  
  
“Miss Lafferty.” The police officer’s voice brought Morgana out of her trance. She had been watching Nikki being questioned across the room, guilt that she had once again brought danger to Nikki’s door twisting in her gut.   
  
“I’m sorry. What did you say?” She asked distractedly. The police had arrived in tandem with the ambulance. Gaius was still unconscious but his vital signs were good and they were confident that he would soon be awake. There was a warrant out in his name, so four police officers had turned up to the call, two going with him to the hospital and the other two staying to take statements.   
  
“We need to know what happened. From the beginning.” The officer was young, younger than Morgana by a few years at least. He had a little of the look of Arthur about him, short gold blond hair, bright eyes. “You were at the hospital?”   
  
“My sister-in-law just had a baby.” She felt cold, alone. She wanted Nikki, wanted to hold her.   
  
He smiled but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Congratulations. What time did you leave the hospital?”   
  
“About an hour ago, maybe more. I’m not really sure.” Then she remembered the new security protocol at the hospital. A disillusioned father had stolen his baby a few months ago, so now every person coming in and out of the wing was monitored. “We had to sign out of the maternity wing. The exact time we left will be on there.”   
  
He nodded. “Okay, thanks. What happened from there?”   
  
“Nikki drove home. We had to park down the road so it took us longer to get here than it should have done. There was a capavan parked outside where the residents usually park. It’s been there for weeks, Nikki’s trying to get the other people in the building to make a joint complaint. You have to pay for a parking permit, so if the capavan is there and you have to park outside our zone then you have to pay in the meter.” She looked nervously back over to Nikki. The capavan detail wasn’t important but nerves made her ramble. “And we were talking outside for a couple of minutes.”   
  
“What about?”   
  
“About my new nephew.” It wasn’t really a lie but she wasn’t about to divulge personal information when she didn’t have to.   
  
“What happened when you got inside?”   
  
Morgana blushed. “We – err – we won’t really paying attention... and the light was off so we didn’t see him. I didn’t know he was there until he spoke.” She swallowed and waited for him to finish jotting it down.   
  
“What do you mean, ‘distracted’?”   
  
“We were kissing,” she said, unimpressed. Either this police officer was few knives short of a carvery set, or he was pressing her for details for his own amusement. Either way, she wasn’t in the mood. “He said something – I can’t remember what it was – so I switched on the light. He had a gun. He kept talking about how I had messed up his plans and that the company should be his, and then he raised the gun at me and pulled the trigger. I think it must have hit the lamp because the light went out and Nikki screamed. I tried to get the gun away from him but I couldn’t. He hit me, with the gun I think, it was cold and hard. I grabbed the closest thing and hit him with it. I had to.”   
  
The police officer looked around the floor at the broken glass. “Where is this gun now?”   
  
“I kicked it away. I don’t know where it went.”   
  
He closed his notebook. “Right. That’ll be it for now but you can’t stay here tonight and you can’t take anything with you. My boss is going to come down here with some people to see if they can find this gun you mentioned-”   
  
Morgana snorted in annoyance. He didn’t believe her.   
  
“- and collect any other evidence they require. Do you have somewhere you can stay?” He didn’t sound concerned.   
  
Morgana found herself wondering why it was that all law enforcement officials seemed to take an instant dislike to her. Maybe they could smell her activist past on her. Or perhaps they had just looked up her criminal record. “My house. It’s about half an hour away from here.” She laughed humourlessly. “You lot have the address. I had to refloor my living room after the last visit.” Okay, so that had been Emrys’ fault but she still blamed them for trekking the black ash through the rest of the house.   
  
He nodded. “Someone will come and talk to you again tomorrow.”   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
“That was one long day,” Morgana sighed collapsing lengthways on her sofa, sending up a puff of air. When no answer came, she craned her neck to loop around the room. Nikki came walking back in from the kitchen carrying a flannel and Morgana’s glass salad bowl filled with water. “What are you-”   
  
“Your lip,” Nikki said softly. She put down the bowl and flannel on top of the magazines on the coffee table and sat beside them. “Sit up so I can take a look.”   
  
Morgana did as she was told, leaning forward so that Nikki could cup her chin in one hand and bring the wetted flannel to her lip with the other. She tried to tug away when the flannel made contact but Nikki held her firm. After she was done cleaning away the blood, she took the flannel and bowl back to the kitchen to wash out. When she returned, Morgana was laid out on the sofa again, her eyes on the ceiling.   
  
Nikki crawled on top of her and laid her head on Morgana’s breast. “A long, _long_ day,” she agreed belatedly, playing with the longest strands of Morgana’s hair. It was longer now than it had been when they met. If it was straightened, it almost reached her waist, every inch of it smooth and silky. She turned into Morgana’s soft skin and murmured, “I thought I’d lost you.”   
  
“Never,” Morgana promised, wrapping her arms tightly around Nikki. “We’re safe now.”   
  
“Thanks to you.” Nikki propped herself up so that she could look into Morgana’s eyes. “Don’t ever act the hero again,” she said sternly.   
  
“I won’t.” There was something in Nikki’s eyes that made Morgana’s heart beat faster. Silence prevailed for a few minutes. “Nik, I need to tell you something.” Nikki didn’t move, didn’t show any signs that she had heard her. “While Gwen was in labour she explained some things about when we were together.”   
  
“Things that change things?” Nikki asked warily. She tucked a strand of golden hair behind her ear and barely resisted the urge to bite her lip.   
  
  
“No, love. Though, I can’t really tell you what they were. She doesn’t want anyone else to know,” Morgana said. A selfish part of her didn’t want to tell Nikki anyway. The same part, which had imagined in the car on the way home what life would have been like if Gwen had proposed to her and she had said yes. They would have been married for over 5 years already. Would they be happy? Live in a big house with sensible furniture and, perhaps, a baby gate? She imagined how much greater the feeling she had had when holding Morgan for the first time would have been like if he was her son.   
  
Then she had looked at Nikki and started to think about what life might have in store for them. She pictured herself sitting cross-legged on the sofa late at night, laptop on her knee, working on her thesis, Nikki leaning against her shoulder, asleep. In her imagination, she turned to her girlfriend and kissed her forehead, making her stir and snuggle in closer, but not wake. Then she imagined marrying Nikki. She imagined her in a beautiful ivory dress, simple and elegant, her hair pulled into a bun with little white flowers, a few loose strands framing her face and Morgana’s mother’s first wedding ring on her finger. She imagined the honeymoon, laying Nikki out on a white sand beach kissing the seawater from her skin, taking breakfast in bed, making love in a secret cove, giggling and needy, all the more sweet for the risk of being caught. Nikki’s hair would lighten in the sun and her skin would tan, making the contrast between them even more beautiful between the sheets. It was Nikki she wanted. Of that, she was certain.   
  
“There’s something else,” she said, hoping those dreams would come true. “I kissed her goodbye. It wasn’t really a kiss, just a touch. She needed closure, to seal that part of our lives and put it behind her.”   
  
The angle of Nikki’s body changed, leaning away from Morgana.   
  
“It means it’s over,” Morgana promised. “There’s nothing left between Gwen and I now, nothing. She’s my best friend and I love her completely, but not like I love you, not anymore. I need her Nikki, that’s why we had to do what we did, so that she could move on like I have. I want to be able to be with her like I was before all of this started. I want to be able to be close to her without people wondering if there’s something else going on. I’ve never loved anyone the way I’m in love with you and I’m asking you, please, to forgive me. I know I don’t deserve it but I’m asking for it anyway. You’re the first person I have ever wanted a future with. I’ve dreamed about it, Nik, and it’s  _so beautiful_ .” She reached up to touch Nikki’s satin-soft cheek with the back of her fingers. “I’m so sorry. Forgive me,” she pleaded.   
  
It worried Nikki that her first thought was to say,  _‘of course’_ , and brush it off but she said it anyway. She felt illogically safe in Morgana’s arms, like nothing could touch her. Time slowed down and all that mattered was the glint in Morgana’s eyes and the brush of her fingers against her lower back, where her shirt rode up. “I trust you.”   
  
“I could never hurt you,” Morgana whispered, leaning up until their noses brushed together.   
  
“I know.” Nikki nodded. And she believed it. People said that the eyes were the windows to a person’s soul. That was never truer than it was for Morgana. Every emotion fluttered across her sea green eyes, bare and raw. Once you knew how to recognise them, it was almost as if you could read her mind. Right then, they were pools of fear and love. There was something almost child-like in the way Morgana feared rejection. It made Nikki ache to be nearer to her, skin to skin, where it was only them and no one else mattered.   
  
“I love you,” Morgana whispered fiercely.   
  
“Show me.”   
  
Morgana strained her neck up for a kiss; soft at first but soon deep and longing. Nikki opened up to her, letting Morgana take her wherever she wanted to go, which, it turned out, was on her back on the soft sofa cushions, one of Morgana’s legs still trapped beneath her, the other between her knees. Tilting her head up into the kiss, Nikki brushed the hair back from Morgana’s face with both hands, running her them through the silk strands, cool between her fingers. The hand that wasn’t holding Morgana up was tracing over her collar bones, spanning out on her neck and pushing back her head so that Morgana could nip from her jaw to the wing-like bones her fingers had danced upon moments before. Nikki arched up into her, her shoulder blades lifting from the sofa. She slipped her hands down over Morgana’s shoulders and down onto her back, pulling her closer.   
  
Holding Nikki’s gaze, Morgana slipped her leg up until it was trapped between Nikki’s opening thighs and rolled her hips, eliciting a gasp and the sting on short fingernails digging into her lower back.   
  
  
_There is no way that I could doubt her,_ Nikki thought,  _when being with her feels like this – so perfect, like it was always meant to be._  She knew it sounded stupid but she didn’t care, not when she so tangled up in Morgana that she didn’t even think each of them ended anywhere, just flowed together.   
  
With a teasing kiss, Morgana sat up, pulling Nikki with her and wrapping the other woman’s legs around her waist. “Hold on,” she whispered, nipping at Nikki’s kiss-swollen bottom lip.   
  
“Why- Ah!” Nikki shrieked and wrapped her arms tightly around Morgana’s neck as she stood up, taking Nikki with her, her hands on Nikki’s arse.   
  
“Because I have a present for you,” Morgana said with an impish smile squeezing the firm flesh beneath her hands. “ _Upstairs_ .”   
  
Nikki laughed, feeling light as a feather from how easily Morgana was carrying her. There was only the barest definition of muscles on Morgana’s arms but she was far stronger than Nikki would ever be. Not that Nikki minded. She certainly wasn’t complaining when Morgana carried her up the stairs or when she stripped her naked, drinking in body greedily, or when she spread her out on the bed, feasting on her until Nikki couldn’t even raise her head from the pillow.   
  
“Where’s my present?” she murmured afterwards, exhausted and aching sweetly all over. Her eyelids were heavy and the world was just that little bit blurred. She was asleep before she could get her answer.   
  
  
  
  
  
  
When Nikki awoke, Morgana was sat up in bed beside her in a strappy top and shorts, flicking through the copy of  _Nature_ which had arrived on her welcome mat that morning. In the minute or two it took her to really come around, Nikki kept her hazy gaze on her girlfriend’s animated face, scrunched up with interest or distaste depending on which article’s abstract she was scanning.   
  
“Not enough microbiology?” Nikki asked teasingly, her voice raspy from sleep and, perhaps, screaming.   
  
Morgana didn’t take her eyes from the journal. “Too many people with medical degrees thinking they can do decent research. Their place is in the kitchen, as it were.”   
  
That earned her a swat on the thigh.   
  
Morgana smiled in satisfaction. “Well now, it doesn’t do to have the grunt workers thinking they can run the place. Think of all the trouble they would get in to. Best stick at what they’re good at, I say. That is, doing what we tell them to do,” she said in an overly posh English accent, closing the journal brusquely and dropping it on the floor. Her glasses were askew. “Was there something you wanted?”   
  
“My present.”   
  
“Was there a present? I don’t remember mentioning a present.” Morgana’s eyes were bright and she was smiling wickedly.   
  
Nikki put on her best wounded face and avoided Morgana’s gaze.   
  
Morgana chucked. “Oh, you mean this present?” She leant over and opened the drawer of her bedside cabinet, pulling out a small blue box tied with a white ribbon. Holding it just out of Nikki’s reach, she leant down and took a good morning kiss that was more tongue than lips.   
  
Half sitting up, Nikki made a grab for the present, pulling it from Morgana’s fingers whilst she was distracted and breaking the kiss to pull at the bow. Discarding the white ribbon amongst the bed sheets, Nikki wiggled of the lid. “Oh Morgana,” she breathed, almost afraid to reach out and claim what was inside.   
  
“It’s an anklet. I know you’re not supposed to wear jewellery at work – and you were complaining about how that means you barely ever get to wear any – but you should be able to sneak this past them.” Morgana bit her lip nervously. “Is it okay?”   
  
Nikki reached up and kissed her briefly. “It’s  _beautiful_ .”   
  
Relieved, Morgana took the anklet from its plush cushion and held it around her fingers for Nikki to see. The chain was gold and very fine, made from four even finer chains plaited together like a Celtic knot. The only decoration was a small gold pendent at the front, a deer with ears pricked and one elegant leg lifted in a curve. So fine was the detail, that you could see the serene expression on the animal’s face.   
  
“It’s a doe,” Morgana explained, brushing the pad of her thumb under one of Nikki’s big brown eyes. “It reminds me of you.”   
  
Her stomach fluttering, Nikki caught Morgana’s hand as it fell away from her cheek and brought it to her mouth to kiss her palm, then her wrist. She didn’t know what to say. It wasn’t an extravagant gift or one that would change her life, but it was so perfectly Morgana that it made Nikki’s heart swell and tears brim behind her eyes. She blinked them away and shook her head, laughing at the sentimentality that had overtaken her.   
  
“Do you want me to put it on for you?” Morgana asked into the kiss Nikki had pulled her into. When Nikki nodded, she slid down the bed, tugging the covers down to fall about Nikki’s waist, leaving her breasts and soft tanned stomach bare. Morgana lingered for a moment to take in the view, smiling as Nikki’s nipples stiffened under her gaze, her breasts heaving with increasingly laboured breaths. Carefully, Morgana lifted Nikki’s left leg from the sheets, bending it first up towards Nikki’s stomach and then gracefully arching it towards her. Starting at the knee, she reverently kissed her way down the smooth skin to Nikki’s ankle, fastening the gold chain around her and kissing the doe last time before raising her eyes to Nikki’s flushed face. Bending her head, she began to drop a trail of kisses back up her leg, over her knee and up her thigh, parting Nikki’s legs as she went. “And now for my present.”   
  
Nikki’s eyes fluttered closed and she gasped softly as Morgana’s kisses reached the slickness of the night before. She slid down the headboard as Morgana pulled her towards her, shifting Nikki’s legs over her shoulders and bowing her head, sneaking out her tongue to lick up and around and  _i _n_ , and in and in and –_   
  
Nikki’s hips were canting off the bed and her head was thrown back when a loud knock at the front door broke the quiet chorus of soft wet sounds and panting. They both jumped, Nikki pulling away from Morgana’s mouth and going beetroot red, Morgana laughing and wiping the back of her hand across her mouth.   
  
“The police. Perfect time as always,” Morgana muttered dryly, getting up from the bed and searching out a cardigan to wrap around her. “I’ll tell then you were still sleeping. Come down when you’re ready,” she said to Nikki, smiling slightly in amusement.   
  
Nikki was in the bathroom when she heard Morgana show the detective out and climb back up the stairs.   
  
“What did he say?” she asked as Morgana entered the bathroom. She had discarded her cardigan somewhere, leaving the arms that circled Nikki’s midriff bare.   
  
“They searched Joseph Gaius’ house last night and found evidence connecting him to Emrys. They found the gin as well and charged him with the murder of my step father’s murder and that of the American family, also breaking and entering and attempted murder. His injuries were minor so he has been taken into custody. Two other members of the board at Pendragon Industries – a Mr. Henrich Monet and Mr. Terrance Martin – have also been arrested. Mr. Monet was a friend of Darren Graham, the American. He’s been charged with conspiracy to have them murdered. Mr. Martin was part of a thankfully unsuccessful attempt to kidnap your Gwen and Arthur. It seems this went a lot deeper we thought. He said they will be in contact again for us both to give full statements about last night.”   
  
“Did you know the other board members well?” Nikki asked, running her fingers along Morgana’s arm and meeting her eyes through the mirror.   
  
“No,” Morgana said. She turned her face into Nikki’s neck and breathed in the honey smell of her soap. In the last six months she had lost her step father, been charged with his murder and then acquitted, kidnapped and beaten up. But she had also gained a beautiful nephew and found Nikki, a woman whom she loved more than she ever thought it was possible to love.   
  
“When I get dressed we can go to the hospital to see Gwen and Morgan,” Nikki said, turning in Morgana’s arms to face her. “I know you’re itching to get your hands on him again.”   
  
Morgana smiled, a wicked idea entering her mind. They had been in the middle of something when the detective had called. “I think,” she began, trailing her hands up Nikki’s back, “that I could be persuaded,” she flicked open the clasp of Nikki’s strapless bra and let it fall to the ground, “to wait a little longer.”   
  
Nikki held her darkening gaze. “Oh yes?”   
  
Morgana nodded, raising her eyebrows and hooking her thumbs into the waistline of Nikki’s red silk knickers. “I believe you have a present for me?”


	24. Chapter 24

**One Year Later**

 

The soft rise of fall of breakfast radio hummed at the edges of Nikki's awareness, joining the song of a lone blackbird and the low growl of distant traffic to form her morning song. Taking a long sip of tea, she picked up the next glossy card in the pile and tried to imagine herself living in its white washed detached cottage. It was a pretty house. The garden was well kept, a little formal maybe, but it would be beautiful in summer and there was more than enough room out back for children to play or dogs to run. What was shown of the interior easily blended modern comforts with rustic charm, balancing hers and Morgana's styles perfectly. On the surface it was ideal, but the fantasy refused to form. Sighing, she threw it down on the 'no' pile and cast her eyes over the cards she had already gone through. Most lay rejected under the cottage. Only two had made it victoriously to the 'maybe' pile. None had gotten a yes.

He already knew where she wanted to live.

Putting Morgana's airy house – the golden standard by which she judged all other prospective homes – to the back of her mind, she reached for a Victorian semi. As she settled back into the cushions, skimming her eyes over the neat description, the letterbox snapped open behind her and a whoosh of post fell onto the mat. The shock of the invasion nearly made her spill her tea, but she managed to steady the cup with her other hand and put it carefully atop the 'no' pile. Discarding the Victorian semi, she peered over her shoulder at the doorway and smiled broadly. There, sitting on the floor by the door, oblivious of its significance, was the latest volume of  _Cell_.

Leaving her house hunting behind, Nikki rose from the sofa and pounced on the post. She scooped up the whole lot, discarding the bills and her six-monthly reminder to give blood on the table by the door, before ripping open the plastic that surrounded the journal and flicking to the contents page. There she ran her finger down the page, searching for the title she had picked from the ten or so variations that had turned up in an email one day, making her smile goofily enough for Harry to tease her for a good half an hour. Half way down the page she saw what she was looking for:

' _A Novel Compound in the Fight against Antibiotic Resistance – A Lesson in Avoiding Drug Efflux'_

Nikki's smile broke into a grin. Trying to contain her excitement, she flicked to page 98 and read the list of author's, the first of the three being the one she sought, Lafferty, M E. Holding the journal to her chest, she dashed through the living room and down the corridor to the bedroom, pushing past the half open door stopping abruptly at her side of the bed. Since she had left, Morgana had curled herself in as much of the quilt as was physically possible, making her look like a sleeping caterpillar in a chrysalis. Nikki had to bite her lip to stop herself from laughing. Carefully, she slid onto the bed, tucking her legs beneath her. Morgana didn't stir.

"Morgana," she said softly.

The caterpillar wiggled further into its chrysalis. This time Nikki did laugh.

"Morgana, it's time to wake up. Something came for you in the post, something that begins with 'C' and ends in 'E' double 'L'," Nikki said excitedly, trying to tempt her girlfriend into the land of the living. "Something," she continued, "that has earned you one hell of a 'well done' kiss."

Making a sleepy sort of sound, Morgana stretched under the covers, loosening her iron-grip on them enough for Nikki to burrow beneath them, wrapping them around her shoulders. With a contagious yawn, Morgana's eyes half opened, dark from sleep. She stared up at the ceiling, blinking slowly, trying to rid her vision of the blur of retreating dreams. Another yawn snook up on her.

"Mmmmm," she murmured, stretching again. A little more awake, she let her head loll to the side and smiled hazily at Nikki. "Is it morning already?"

Nikki chuckled, running her fingers through Morgana's sleep tousled hair, brushing it back from her forehead. "I'm afraid it is. It's almost half past ten."

Morgana's sleep addled brain fumbled with the numbers. "Five hours sleep. Bleeding baggage handler strike. If one more union goes on strike then I'm turning Tory."

"And hell will freeze over."

"A small price to pay for convenient travel," Morgana said with a growing impish smile. "Hell always was a little on the hot side for me anyway. I just don't have the skin tone for it."

Laughing, Nikki swooped down for her first kiss of the day, her stomach fluttering just as much as it had the very first time. She had never had that before, never managed to keep the original spark in a relationship, not matter how hard she tried. With Morgana it was effortless. She lost herself in every kiss, shivered at every touch and melted with every smile. It was, she knew, how love was meant to feel.

"I love you," she murmured, kissing Morgana again.

"Not half as much as I love you," Morgana whispered, bumping her nose with Nikki's.

"I missed you," Nikki said, feeling like a fool. Morgana had only been gone three nights. "I've become one of those pathetic people who can't sleep alone."

The hand that Morgana tangled in her hair was warm. Tingles ran down her spine.

"I watched enough late night TV to last me a lifetime in my insomnia. I couldn't reach the TV to change the channel and there was no remote so I had to watch RTÉ Two all night every night. Did you know there are whole immigrant communities in the Scottish highlands who exclusively speak Irish Gaelic? Apparently there are. There was a three hour documentary on the subject. In Gaelic. I had to sit up to read the subtitles."

Nikki suppressed a laugh. "So you're all read out then? I suppose that means that you won't want to see a certain journal that came in the post today."

Before Morgana could react, Nikki scrambled up from the bed and made for the door. She hadn't gotten four steps before Morgana's grabbed her around her waist, stopping her in her tracks and wrestling her, struggling, back to bed.

"Oh no you don't," Morgana said, smiling victoriously from atop Nikki's hips, getiing herself comfortable before reaching for the journal that Nikki was holding just out of her reach. "Give it here."

"What's it worth?" Nikki asked coyly.

Morgana considered. "A hot bath, a  _full body_  massage..." she ran her hands up the ticklish curve of Nikki's sides, "and I'll make dinner for a week."

"Including dessert," Nikki bargained, holding out the journal.

"Including dessert," Morgana agreed. She winked cornily. "Both kinds."

"Page 98." Sitting up so that Morgana was in her lap, Nikki watched her flick to the page her article began on and smile the most adorable smile that Nikki had ever seen. "I am  _so_  proud of you," she whispered, wrapping her arms around Morgana's waist. "My genius."

" _With special thanks to Dr. Nikki Alexander, whose midnight brainstorming sessions made this possible_ ," Morgana read aloud, turning the journal around and pointing to the short acknowledgements section for Nikki to see. "I always keep my promises, especially to you."

Taking the journal, Nikki read the words for herself, a warm feeling spreading out from her stomach. She remembered the promise. Morgana made it the night before Emrys came for them.

"I – errm – I was going to write something else as well, but I didn't think you would appreciate the fuss," Morgana said.

There was something in the way Morgana's voice wavered that made Nikki's insides do somersaults. She put the journal aside. "Yeah?"

Morgana had never looked more beautiful. Her hair was messy, her cheeks flushed and her eyes wide and uncertain. She sought out both of Nikki's hands and laced their fingers together. "Nikki, you – you came into my life at the start of what would be my darkest days and gave me the strength to get through them. You never once doubted me, even when everything was going against me. I can't even begin to tell you how much that still means to me." She took a deep, trembling breath. "Before I met you, I thought I knew what love was, but I've never felt  _anything_  like this. I love you so much that I can't breathe when you aren't here. I can't bear to imagine a future without you in it." She brought one of Nikki's hands up to her lips and kissed it reverently. "I know that this can't exactly be how you imagined someone asking you this, there are no flowers, no candles or fancy meals. I had that all planned, but being away from you this week has made it impossible for me to wait any longer."

Nikki felt like she was falling. She couldn't breathe.

"Nikki Alexander, you are the love of my life, the most beautiful, smartest, most perfect woman I have ever met, and I don't even come close to deserving you. But for some reason, you seem to love me too. So I'm asking you, please, make my dreams come true and marry me?" Morgana asked shakily, her eyes full of fear.

"I – I – Yes,  _yes_." A flood of tears ran down her cheeks. Loosing Morgana's hands, she pulled her back down onto the bed with her, kissing her with everything she had, pouring all she had ever felt for her into her, overflowing with it. "I love you. I love you. I love you," she prayed against Morgana's lips in a kiss that tasted of the salt of her tears (or were they Morgana's?) and the sweetness of the happiest she had ever felt.

"Yes," she said again. "Yes."

 

 

 

"Stop grinning," Nikki muttered. "They'll know straight away if you don't stop grinning."

Morgana fidgeted on the front mat and pressed the doorbell again. "I can't."

"Think of something sad, like the amount of boring emails you'll have to wade through when you go back to work on Monday," Nikki suggested, checking her watch. They were definitely on time. And it was definitely the right date. Gwen had nearly murdered Morgana when she found out that her flight back from the conference only got in the morning of Morgan's first birthday. Nikki had gotten a phone call from her the night before making sure that Morgana's flight was on time. I had been. Nikki had told her so within the first thirty seconds. Gwen still managed to stay on the phone for a good half an hour.

"I didn't get the internet switched off. I've been getting them through on my phone all week," Morgana said distractedly, fussing with her dress. She still didn't understand why Morgan's birthday party was at a fine French restaurant, even if Elyan had just bought it. He had only met Morgan that Christmas, unreliable buggar that he was. First birthday parties should have other small children and brightly dressed vaguely creepy children's entertainers making indistinguishable shapes with balloons, not formal wear and amuse-bouches.

"Morgana! How much will that cost?" Nikki asked, aghast, before thinking better of it. "Never mind, I don't want to know."

"I just forgot! It's not like I don't have the money."

"Yet you still flew overnight with Ryanair. I had to listen to Gwen panic over the phone all the way through Dragon's Den," Nikki said, annoyance creeping in on her good mood. If Morgana had gotten a normal timed flight, she could have had a full night sleep without being interrupted in the early morning by her irate girlfriend who had lost her key.

"None of the proper airlines fly into Dublin anymore. Would you rather I chartered a Blue Star Jet?"

The sight of Morgana, her hands on her hips, looking uncomfortable in long burgundy dress, brought laughter bubbling from Nikki's throat.

"What's so funny?" Morgana asked shortly.

"That was our first ever argument as two people engaged to be married," Nikki sang, stepping into Morgana to kiss away her frown.

"So it is, fiancée," Morgana mused, wrapping her arms around Nikki's neck and kissing her again.

With the bang of the doorknocker, Arthur yanked open the door, filling the peaceful afternoon air with the sound of wailing.

"Oh, for God's sake," he swore. "Is it not bad enough already that Gwen and I barely get any time to do that without you two rubbing it in?"

Nikki blushed and stepped away.

"Hello baby brother. It's nice to see you too. Why yes, the conference was fine, thank you for asking," Morgana sniped playfully.

"Brilliant," Arthur said wearily, Morgan screaming in his arms. He was still in his pyjamas. "Take your God son," he said, thrusting Morgan at Morgana and turning back inside the house.

The second Morgana's arms closed around the curly haired baby, he stopped crying and started laughing, patting her face with his chubby hands.

"Oh well that's just  _bloody brilliant_ ," Arthur called from the bottom of the stairs. "He stops crying for you!"

"At least someone is happy to see me," Morgana cooed, managing to pull off sweet without putting on that terribly annoying baby voice that seemed to be most people's default setting when faced with an infant or small fluffy mammal. She kissed his red cheeks. "Happy birthday, baby boy. Is daddy being bad tempered again? He always was a nightmare if he didn't get his 8 hours a night."

"I think he'd settle for an hour." Gwen was in the doorway, dressed and ready to go. She had apparently won the coin toss. "This little one has been up all night with crying. I thought it was colic at first but the doctor said he would be over it by now." She looked only marginally less tired than Arthur, and most of that was down to makeup.

"Maybe he was just missing his Auntie Morgana," Morgana suggested, giving Gwen a reassuring smile. "We all know how that can reduce even the coldest hearted and emotionless people to sobbing messes. But just in case..." She shifted Morgan to her other hip and turned so that Nikki could get a look at him. "He has another Auntie who just happens to be a doctor."

Nikki ran her hand over his forehead, dodging his attempts to grab hold of her hair whilst she looked into his eyes. She pulled down his little damp chin and peered into his mouth. "He's just fine. It looks like the last of his teeth are coming through. Harry's meeting us at the restaurant. He'll have a better idea than me. He started teething a good month later than most babies do. It's nothing to worry about. I think he's just a bit of a late developer."

"Just like his father," Morgana stage whispered to the oblivious baby. "He didn't stop wetting the bed until he was fourteen."

"Morgana!" Arthur squeaked in outrage, appearing behind Gwen, having changed into a suit quicker than Morgana would have thought possible.

"Oh, like Gwen doesn't already know," Morgana scoffed, stepping back to take Morgan out of Arthur's reach. She hadn't seen her precious nephew for five whole days and she wasn't about to give him up now. "You do know she was there all those times you phoned me in college because you were having nightmares? I may have mentioned the bed wetting then."

"Morgana!"

"Its fine, she married you anyway," Morgana dismissed, using her fingers as a pretend scissors to mimic cutting Morgan's hair whilst the little boy laughed and tried to catch her arm. "And whilst we're on the subject..."

"Morgana!" It was Nikki this time.

"On the subject of bed wetting?" Gwen wrinkled her nose.

"Can we please stop talking about bed wetting," Arthur hissed.

"No, not bed wetting."

"Morgana, now is not the time," Nikki whispered tersely.

"We both know I'm terrible at keeping secrets. It's either now or half way through Elyan's most expensive bottle of champagne. I'm just speeding up the process," Morgana reasoned, passing Morgan to Nikki, whom he was keenly reaching for.

"Speeding up what process?" Gwen asked eagerly. There was a glint in her eye that Nikki suspected meant that she already knew. Morgana was all grand gestures and no sense of embarrassment. There was no way she would have known that Nikki would have died from mortification if Morgana had somehow managed to slip a proposal passed several peer reviewers and into her article.

"She said yes!" Morgana's bright smile and obvious elation was enough to make Nikki go weak at the knees.

"Ah! Congratulations!" Gwen cried, practically jumping down from the doorway to wrap Morgana in a crushing hug.

"Who said yes to what? What am I missing?" Arthur asked, looking from the tangled mess of a hug that was his sister and his wife to Nikki and his son. "Why am I always the last to know everything?"

 

 

 

Nikki joined Harry at the bar and tucked her arm through his. She regretted not having told him that she was engaged separately, before the others. They were never together, but they had danced around it for so long that felt she owed it to him. "I was going to tell you first. I'm sorry."

He smiled his best roughish smile and put his arm around her shoulder. "Don't worry about it." He gave her a one armed hug and kissed the top of her head. "I'm happy for you, Niks. You and Morgana are perfect for each other. Even a blind man could see that."

She leant into him. It felt like forever since she had hugged him like this. "I'm sorry it didn't work out between you and-"

"The less said about that the better," Harry smiled, cutting in. His arm left her to take his drink from the barman. "I'm sure one day I'll find a woman who isn't either scarily fascinated or completely terrified by what I do. You and Leo have managed it."

Nikki smiled. "Morgana has a friend who-"

"No more of Morgana's friends," Harry interjected. "Not ever."

"You do realise that there are waiters."

Nikki laughed as she was pulled backwards into Morgana's arms.

"I know Elyan's useless but he seems to have gotten that much right at least," Morgana said. She let go of Nikki after brushing a quick kiss to her shoulder and patted Harry on the arm. "Don't worry, I'm not sticking around, just making a pit stop on my way to try and find the toilets. Carry on talking about whatever you were talking about. I know you like to have your secret pathologist meetings."

"It really is quite stomach-turning for us single folk to see the way you look at her," Harry joked, nudging a transfixed Nikki with his elbow. "Earth to Alexander. Earth to Alexander."

Nikki didn't hear; she was watching Morgana disappear from view. She couldn't believe how lucky she had gotten. They had been through so much in such a short space of time and, honestly, there was a fair bit she would change given the chance. But she couldn't regret a second of it. Every moment had taken them to where they were then. For that, she was almost grateful to Emrys and Gaius, despite how much she hated them for the hurt they had caused Morgana.

"You really are smitten, aren't you?" Harry asked fondly.

"Completely," Nikki admitted.

 

 

A cold wind billowed down the corridor. Morgana shivered. The bathroom had been freezing too. She glanced down the corridor. The back door was open, her sister-in-law silhouetted in the doorway, gazing out into the yard.

"Gwen?" She glanced back into the restaurant before heading for the door, wrapping her arms around herself in an attempt to ward off the cold. Gwen didn't seem to hear her name or the noisy clicks of Morgana's heels on the stone tiled floor. "Is everything alright?" Following her gaze, Morgana saw only the brick wall that separated them from the alley. She was staring into space. "Gwen?" Sacrificing the meagre warmth she had gathered, Morgana lifted one hand to gently touch Gwen's arm.

"I'm waiting for it," Gwen breathed. Her skin was icy to the touch and Morgana found herself trying and failing to remember when she had last seen her at the table.

"Waiting for what?" Morgana asked quietly, rubbing her hand up and down Gwen's arm to warm that small part of her at least.

Gwen's forehead wrinkled. "For it to all go wrong." She took a sniffle of a breath and turned to face Morgana. "It always does, doesn't it? Why should this time be any different?"

Sighing, Morgana brought her other hand to Gwen's other arm, holding her steady, giving her the anchor that her lost little girl voice screamed out that she needed. Gwen had always been the fragile one. Everyone thought it was Arthur, but Gwen was the one who needed to be told that she was loved, told that everything would be alright and that there was nothing hiding in the darkness waiting to get her.

"I barely sleep. Every night I sneak out of bed and into Morgan's room. I'm terrified that he'll just stop breathing, Morgana. It happens all the time. Babies go to sleep as perfect as perfect can be and never wake up. What if that happens to him?" Gwen whimpered, her eyes shining with unshed tears, piercing Morgana's heart like twin daggers.

"What happened to Victoria-"

"300 babies die in their sleep every year and no one knows why, not really. What if there's something genetic? What if I've given something to him?" Gwen fell into her arms, hands pressed flat against Morgana's collar bone, her head bowed between them. Morgana's arms went around her on instinct.

"Victoria was six weeks old, Gwen. Cot death is extremely rare in babies over three months. It's nigh on unheard of in children Morgan's age. He's a year old now. He's big and strong," Morgana promised. "I can't imagine what it feels like to lose someone as close to you as Victoria was but-"

"I don't feel, that's the worst thing," Gwen trembled. "I know I'm supposed to feel like one half of me is missing, but I don't and I can't talk to Arthur about how scared I am that something is wrong with Morgan because he skirts so carefully around Victoria that it makes my heart break. How can I tell him that the only reason I'm even thinking about my twin sister is because of Morgan?" She looked up at Morgana, searching. "He'll never understand," she touched Morgana's cheek, "not like you do. You always understand."

Morgana turned into her touch. "He'll understand too," she whispered, her eyes fluttering closed, "because he loves you." She felt Gwen lean her head against her again. "Stop looking for something to go wrong. For once, all of our lives are good and they're only going to get better. This is it, Gwen, we've both gotten our happily ever afters."

When she opened her eyes, Morgana caught sight of Nikki over Gwen's shoulder, smiling at them from the corridor. Without a word, she slipped back into the crowd of the restaurant and left them alone.

 

 

Sighing happily, Morgana curled into Nikki's warmth, winding around her beneath the quilt, far more contented than she had ever been before. She was in a place in her life that she never realistically thought she would reach. Marriage had never been something she had expected out of life. When she was growing up the thought of it was impossible. Then, when she got a little older and things changed, at least partially, the mere thought of such a commitment sent her running for the hills. The one time she had actually considered it favourably, she had her heart broken so badly she cried every night for longer than she cared to remember. Meeting Nikki changed all of that. It was different from the beginning. And not just because of all the drama that rocked their fledgling relationship. For the first time since Gwen left her, she had someone who understood her. It felt like they had in-jokes from the very start. They didn't need to pretend to be just like everyone else. It was almost like being back at university when everyone in your faculty had that instant thing in common.

Even then, though, she never thought it would last. Not when she was arrested. Any sane person would have left then but Nikki was her biggest supporter. Without her, Morgana would never have gotten through it, not with Gwen and Arthur seeming further out of her reach than ever. Nikki gave her hope and that was what saved her. She quickly realised that she would move mountains just to see her smile. That was when she knew that maybe this time she had gotten it right; she had found that fabled one person who makes her whole. And now she was marrying her. Now, if the news coming out of the Houses of Parliament was true, she would actually be able to  _marry_  her.

"Good God, I must be getting old. We got engaged today and all I want to do is sleep," she murmured into Nikki's neck.

Nikki smiled and kissed the soft silky hair at Morgana's temple. "Sleep now, we can fuck in the morning."

Morgana snorted. "Did you say the word 'fuck' in a casual sentence referring to what I think you were referring to?"

"I thought that would get your attention," Nikki smirked. "You're a bad influence on me. You got me drunk to lure me into bed when I was vulnerable and alone in the bar, giving me a conflict of interest that almost lost me my job."

"I'm a bad influence?" Morgana pulled herself up until she was looking down at her fiancée. "Dr Alexander, I do believe that you were the one who kissed me, remember? I was recently bereaved and you were by no means drunk. You haggled with the taxi driver for five whole minutes whilst I froze my arse off, wondering what kind of lunatic I'd brought home with me."

"I am not a lunatic!" Nikki protested, swatting Morgana playfully on the arm. "He deliberately took a long route from the bar! He was taking the Mickey!"

"And you're still bitter about... Even though I was the one who paid for the taxi," Morgana said incredulously. "I should have left on the doorstep then."

Nikki pouted. "But then I wouldn't get my ring. I quite liked the idea of being Nikki Lafferty but now..."

Teasing forgotten, a childlike smile spread across Morgana's face. "You want to take my name?"

Nikki reached up to brush the hair back from Morgana's eyes and, for a moment, was startled by just how beautiful she was. Morgana was everything that she never knew that she wanted and everything that she had always needed. "I want everyone to know that I'm your wife. I want everything with you."

"A dog named Rory and a house in the suburbs?" Morgana joked, that beautiful smile still in place.

"Well, there is one house I like the look of," Nikki began. "It's pretty perfect actually. It's just over a half hour drive from both of our works. It's big and spacious with the most gorgeous kitchen I've ever seen. There's a dusty old library on the third floor with a big comfy leather sofa that we could both curl up on. The master bedroom is gorgeous. It's got this quote from Oscar Wilde on the wall opposite the bed..."

"Nikki..."

"Not to mention the fact that it wouldn't cost us a thing. Forget about Emrys and the fire. No one was even there and the decorators have done a wonderful job. You can't even tell anything happened," Nikki reasoned. Morgana didn't look convinced. "I remember it as the first place I woke up in your arms, the venue for our first proper date and the place I knew that I had fallen in love with you the day you were released on bail. I want to live in that place and remember those things every day. But I won't push for it, not if you really don't want to." She slid her arms around Morgana's waist. "You loved that house. Don't let him spoil it for you. I got the most amazing thing from all of this. I got you, my beautiful fiancée. I wouldn't change that for the world, even if it meant never meeting Emrys."

Morgana blushed. "Do you mean it?"

Nikki smiled. "I'm marrying you aren't I?" She giggled. "Marrying you. That sounds so strange. I'm getting married. Me. I didn't even think I wanted to get married. Then I met you and... Everything that used to seem terrifying seems to me now to me to sound just like heaven." She gazed up at Morgana adoringly. "So yes, I mean it."

Morgana's eyes shone. "What do you say to a winter wedding?"


End file.
